THE 

Last 

THE 

Miranda 




(oluh$ 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



%tp GwW fa 

■ rJAb'l 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



o 



NUMBER <. 

OF THE FIRST HUNDRED COPIES OF THE 
FIRST EDITION. 



^ 







:. : : ■ ■ 





The last cruise 

of the MIRANDA 

A RECORD OF ARCTIC ADVENTURE 



HENRY COLLINS WALSH 

WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM 

Prof. Wm. H. Brewer, of Yale : Prof. G. Frederick Wright, of Oberlin ; James D. 

Dewell, Hon. George W. Gardner, Prof. B. C. Jillson, Br. F. A. Cook, 

Capt. Geo. W. Dixon, Budolf Kersting, Dr. B. O. Stebbins, 

Matnard Ladd, Arthur B. Thompson, Bussell W. 

Porter, Carlyle Garrison, L. J. W. Jotner, 

Samuel Orth, and Chas. B. Carpenter. 



Profusely Illustrated from Photographs taken on the Trip. 



MDCCCXCVI 

THE TRANSATLANTIC PUBLISHING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 

63 Fifth Avenue 

LONDON 

26 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden 



^V""- % , „n<L* sir 

18! 



N0V ri H895 UlW> C QJ* 



Copyright 1895 



JAMES D. DEWELL 






frtf 



CONTENTS. 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

Henry Collins Walsh 9 

Captain Dixon's Log 135 

Atmospheric Dust in the Arctic Regions. Professor William 

H. Brewer 148 

Glacial Observations in Labrador and Southern Green- 
land. Professor G. Frederick Wright . . . .162 

The Greenlanders. Frederick A. Cook, M.D. . . . 172 

A Greenland Cemetery. James D. Dewell ..... 180 

The Eskimos' Teeth, and Other Notes. R. O. Stebbins, D.D.S. 186 

The Flora of South Greenland. Samuel P. Ortli . . 190 

Note on the Insects of Sukkertoppen. L. J. W. Joyner . 194 

The Finding of the Rigel. Russell W. Porter . . .196 

The Trip to Holsteinborg. Maynard Ladd .... 203 

Icebergs. Arthur R. Thompson 208 

A Greenland Sunday. Charles Blake Carpenter . . 210 

Our Adventures at Sukkertoppen. Carlyle Garrison . . 215 

The Illustrations. Rudolf Kersting 218 

A Letter from Hon. George W. Gardner .... 222 

A Letter from Professor B. C. Jillson .... 225 

The Arctic Club . . . . . . . , . 229 



DEDICATED 

TO 

COMRADES ON THE MIRANDA AND THE RIGEL 



THE LAST GRUI8E OF THE MIRANDA. 



CHAPTER I. 




It is a comparatively 
easy matter to organize an 
Arctic expedition in the 
city of New York, but it 
is quite another thing to 
get the expedition well 
into the Arctic regions 
and bring it safely home 
again. This requires a 
happy combination of cir- 
cumstances, which the 
uninitiated are not apt to take into consideration. There was 
probably not an individual who had joined "Dr. Cook's 
Arctic Expedition of 1894 " who for a moment doubted that 
the expedition would really be in Melville Bay on the 
scheduled time, and a connection with Lieutenant Peary and 
his party was looked upon as a matter of course. But, as 
Robbie Burns aptly puts it : 

" The best laid schemes o' mice and men 
Gang aft agley. " 

Quite a number of mice, as well, indeed, as their larger 
cousins the rats, had laid their plans to accompany the expe- 
dition; though to the credit of some, be it said, that with wise 
forethought they deserted the ship on the very day of sailing, 



10 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

and thus brought fear and dire forebodings to the hearts of 
superstitious sailors. But who then, except these wise rats, 
dreamed that a single solitary iceberg among the almost 
countless numbers that would be passed on the way would 
wilfully crash into the Miranda, and so delay matters by the 
damage inflicted as to force the expedition to give up its cher- 
ished plan of piercing into really far northern latitudes ; or 
again, who among the human beings dreamed that the ship 
would ultimately come to grief upon some sunken rocks off 
the bleak coast of Greenland, and thus end the expedition in 

disaster ? 
But this, as 
Mr. Kipling 
says, is an- 
other story, 
or rather 
one to be 
told later on. 
At the 
start it may 
be well to 
state briefly 
the objects 
the miranda. of the ex- 

pedition, which, though they were not accomplished, except in 
part, still made up a very attractive prospectus. The 
main objects were : To study the Greenland glacier system, 
the inland ice -cap, the glaciers and icebergs; to map out 
and explore a part of the unknown coast of Melville Bay, 
and to photograph, sketch, and study the Eskimos, and the 
animal and vegetable life to be found in the northern 
regions. 

The Peary camp was to be visited, and the latest news con- 
cerning that expedition was to be brought back to the United 




THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



11 



States in advance of the Peary party. A search was to be 
undertaken for the young Swedish explorers, Bjorling and 
Kallestenius, who had boldly skoaled to the northward in a 
crazy kind of a tub, and passed into the great Arctic silences, 
never to be heard 
of again. During 
this search a part 
of the unknown 
coast of Elles- 
mere Land was 
to be explored. 
Then the great 
game to be found 
in the Arctic re- 
gions^ such as 
polar bear, wal- 
rus, reindeer, 
seal, caribou, etc., 
attracted quite a 
number of sports- 
men to the ex- 
pedition, among 
them such well- 
known hunters as 
Professor L. L. 
Dyche, of the Kansas State University, whose Western 
hunting experiences are related in " Camp Fires of a Natural- 
ist;" E. A. Mcllhenny, and Eobert D. Perry. 

The officers of the expedition were : Dr. Frederick A. 
Cook, commander and organizer of the expedition ; Professor 
William H. Brewer, of Yale ; Professor G-. Frederick Wright, 
of Oberlin College, and Professor B. C. Jillson, of Pittsburg, 
geologists ; Professor L. L. Dyche, Kansas State University, 
zoologist ; E. A. Mcllhenny, of Louisiana, ornithologist ; 




DR. FREDERICK A. COOK. 



12 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

Samuel P. Orth and B. F. Staunton, of Oberlin, botanists ; 
Professor Elias P. Lyon, of Harvard School, Chicago, biolo- 
gist ; Dr. Jules F. Valle, of St. Louis, and Dr. E. M. Cramer, 
of New York, surgeons ; Professor L. J. Joyner, of Pough- 
keepsie, entomologist ; Russell W. Porter, of Boston, and 
Robert DeP. Tytus, of New Haven, surveyors ; H. C. Walsh, 
of New York, historian. Rudolf Kersting, of New York, was 
the official photographer, and Charles K. Reed, of Worcester, 
Mass., and J. A. Travis, of New York, were the taxidermists. 

Other members of the expedition were James D. Dewell, 
of New Haven ; Hon. George W. Gardner, ex- Mayor of 
Cleveland, Ohio; Ashley C. Clover, ex-Prosecuting Attorney 
of St. Louis ; G. W. ^Y. Dove and A. A. Freeman, of 
Andover, ' Mass. ; Willis A. Reeve, of Patchogue, L. I.; 
William Bryce, Jr., of New York; Maynard Ladd, John R. 
Fordyce, H. D. Cleveland, Frederick P. Gay, of Harvard 
College ; C. P. Lineaweaver, T. J. Lineaweaver, A. B. Brown, 
H. W. Dunning, Philip Evans, C. J. Rumrill, A. P. Rogers, 
A. R. Thompson, of Yale College ; R. D. Perry, of Phillips- 
ton, Mass.; S. G. Tenney, of Williamstown, Mass. ; Chas. B. 
Carpenter, of New York ; Professor Charles E. Hite, Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania ; G. M. Coates, G. H. Perkins, Howard 
Bucknell, of Philadelphia ; R. 0. Stebbins, of New York ; 
W. H. H. Armstrong, of Newburg- on -Hudson ; William J. 
Littell, of Washington, D. C. ; Benjamin Hoppin and A. A. 
Sutherland, of Baddeck, C. B. ; J. A. Travis, Jr., of New 
York ; Walter S. Root, of Cleveland ; F. B. Wright, of Ober- 
lin ; Carlyle Garrison, of Merchantville, N. J. 

Carl Garrison, the last mentioned, was by far the youngest 
member of the expedition — a boy of but thirteen years of age. 
As his parents are old friends of mine, he went along under 
my care, and I had every reason to be proud of my young 
charge. Through all our various trials, dangers, and rough 
experiences he showed a courage and discretion far beyond 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



13 



his years, and accepted all manner of hardships with 
cheerfulness and with calm philosophy. He was dubbed 
the " Mascot." Who the more powerful spirit of evil 
in the shape of a Jonah was, has not yet been finally 
determined. 

Perhaps the real Jonah was the Miranda herself, if a 
Jonah can be of 
the feminine 
gender. Certain- 
ly the name itself 
is suggestive of 
hidden reefs and 
tempests, and the 
vessel's previous 
history had been 
decidedly unfor- 
tunate. She was 
built for the Eed 
Cross Line, in 
Liverpool, Eng- 
land, in 1884, 
and had hardly 
been put into ser- 
vice between 
New York, Hali- 
f a x, and St. 
Johns when she 
ran on rocks off 
Point Judith. 
Later she struck 
on rocks in Hell 
Gate and sank, 
but was raised at considerable cost. She collided with 
an iron steamer, and later with a schooner, and it was she 




CAPTAIN WILLIAM J. FARRELL. 



14 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIEANDA. 



who towed Leary's raft from Nova Scotia in 1887. The raft 
pulled the fastenings out of the Miranda, went to pieces, and 
became a serious disturber of traffic. She lost her good 
name and passenger trade after these accidents, and was 

finally rented 
out as a frieght 
steamer, run- 
ning between 
New York, 
Jamaica, and 
Central Ameri- 
ca. Is it any 
wonder that, 
with such a sin- 
gular penchant 
for rocks and 
collisions, she 
should finally 
have come to 
grief upon a 
sunken reef off 
the coast of 
Greenland? 
The captain of 
the Miranda 
was William 
J. Farrell, and the first officer, George Manuel. 

The expedition started from Pier 6, North Eiver, New 
York, on the afternoon of July 7. This was several days 
later than had been expected, but the Miranda had been 
tardy in a voyage from Central America. Of course, quite a 
crowd of people had collected about the pier, friends and 
relatives of the passengers, and a number of others were there 
out of curiosity to have a look at the vessel and its occupants. 




OUR ESKIMO FRIENDS 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 15 

A party of four Eskimos, consisting of a father and his two 
daughters and a youth, who were being taken back to their 
homes after assisting in the spectacular effects of a lecture 
tour, came in for a great share of attention, and submit- 
ted patiently to unceasing cross-examinations, for they 
had learned to speak English fluently, perhaps to their 
regret. 

At length the signil was given for all to go on shore who 
were not going with the expedition, and the pause that came 
before the actual start gave a stout man on the wharf an op- 
portunity to let off a few mild jokes at our expense. He per- 
sisted in looking upon the expedition from a humorous stand- 
point, and was aided and abetted in his point of view by a 
Fourth of July jag which had not yet entirely deserted him. 
" What in the name of Hades do you want to go to the North 
Pole for anyway," he shouted, " when ice is only two dollars 
a ton in New York?" Little did he know how dearly ice 
would cost us off the coast of Labrador later on. But when 
the start was actually made, and the Miranda, instead of 
backing out, as was intended, headed directly for the dock, 
hitting against two or three smaller craft on her way, his de- 
light knew no bounds. " Are you going to hunt polar bear 
in Wall Street ?" he shouted in high glee. Something un- 
looked for had happened. The signal wires going into the 
engineer's room, which had just been renewed, had been un- 
accountably crossed, and the engineer had thus received the 
reverse signal from the one intended. However, after threat- 
ening to entirely demolish some smaller craft, and after a great 
deal of bellowing and shouting, and not a little swearing, 
matters were rectified, and the Miranda backed out, swung, 
and started on her career, amid cheers and wavings and con- 
fused shoutings of farewell from the shore. 

We steamed through Long Island Sound, and outside 
of Nantucket. The usual course is through Vineyard Sound, 



16 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



but an accident to our compass caused the captain to change 
the course. 

The first days out were not crowded with incident, as is 
but natural on the ocean. The air was so balmy and the 
water so smooth that there was but little seasickness, though 
here and there men were stretched on steamer-chairs look- 
ing with jaun- 
diced eyes upon 
the wrinkled sea. 
Most of the 
huntsmen, with a 
restless energy, 
kept up for sev- 
eral days a con- 
tinual rifle 
practice, and 
shot at any shin- 
ing mark that 
offered. Our 
deck, bristling 
with polished 
gun - barrels, re- 
sembled that of 
a pirate ship. 

On July 9 
several whales ap- 
peared and broke 
the monotony of 
the watery ex- 
panse. Many of 
them rose so close 
to the ship as 
to become targets for the sharpshooters, and a chorus of 
volleys saluted their advent, seemingly to the satisfaction 




HENRY COLLINS WALSH 



THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 17 

of both parties concerned ; for the whales spouted and 
dipped in answer to the salutes accorded them, and seemed 
not a whit the worse for the broadsides poured into them. In 
the afternoon a large swordfish almost ran into us, and also 
went on his way rejoicing,, after receiving a baptism of fire. 

The next day, Sunday, broke clear, calm, and beautiful, 
with hardly a ripple on the surface of the sea. Tbe day 
passed without an important event, except that a small and 
select band of stokers and firemen seized the occasion to break 
into the wine-room, where they remained to scofE while others 
prayed, with the result that a free fight was indulged in, 
shortly after which one of the firemen disappeared. All sorts 
of rumors spread regarding the missing man, and it was gen- 
erally believed that he had jumped overboard as a result of 
a drunken frenzy. He was several days afterwards dis- 
covered hiding in the hold, and deserted the ship promptly 
on our arrival at Sydney. 

The next morning we were off the coast of Nova Scotia, 
and it was cold, foggy, and dismal. Our whistle was kept 
constantly blowing, and many soundings were taken. The 
gloom of the fog seemed to hang even over the breakfast- 
table until it was lifted by the genial Professor Brewer, of 
Yale. The Professor was the autocrat of the breakfast-table, 
and many a word of wit and wisdom fell with unconscious ease 
from his lips ; — one of those rare men upon whom learning 
sits easily and gracefully, without weighing down in the 
least upon a delicate and keen sense of humor. To him we 
were indebted for much useful information upon all man- 
ner of subjects, as well as many a hearty laugh. On this 
occasion the laughter was raised unconsciously; but the story is 
too good to be left untold. The Professor sat at the head of the 
table holding an egg up to the light and eyeing it curiously. 
" See," he said to a professor next to him, " the wonderful 
provision of Nature in mending eggs," and he dilated at some 



18 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



length upon this provision, and passed the egg to let his 
brother professor inspect the shell, beneath an aperture of 
which another shell had apparently formed. " I have had a 
varied experience with hard-boiled eggs," said the Professor's 
brother in arms, " but^this, is certainly the hardest egg that 
I have ever seen," and he hit the egg a crack with his knife, 




GROUP OF PROFESSORS. 



but the knife rebounded. Professor Brewer then took the egg 
in hand again, and struck it a resounding thump with a heavy 
plated spoon. " Why, by Jolly," he exclaimed, "it's a china 
egg ! " And then the inextinguishable laughter of the gods 
arose ; but notwithstanding, the Professor finished his lecture 
upon Nature's method of mending eggs. It is needless to say 



20 THE LAST CKUISE OP THE MIEANDA. 

that in spite of the vigorous thumps it had received the par- 
ticular egg in question needed no mending. Had it ever been 
hatched, a Shanghai rooster, perhaps, would have been the 
natural result. 

"How well this crowd seems to get along," remarked a 
man opposite me at table, " in spite of the fact that before 
leaving New York scarcely one man iri the crowd knew 
another." 

"Well," said an Englishman upon my right, with the 
slow deliberation of his race and the air of a man who had 
given the subject careful consideration — " well, but we are a 
very superior crowd, you know." There was no dissent from 
this opinion. 

Late in the afternoon of July 11, we steamed into the beau- 
ful harbor of Sydney, one of the finest harbors in the world. 
A ray of the light that never was on land or sea seemed to 
have broken from the unknown void to shed its glory on land 
and sea and sky. On either hand the dual town of Sydney 
stood bathed in the dying light, and out in the harbor, sud- 
denly, as if by magic, a gleaming French man-o'-war loomed 
into sight, "clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful." 

It was evening when we ran alongside of a wharf at North 
Sydney ; for we had to take in a supply of coal here, as well 
as live stock and provisions. A speedy outpouring there was, 
as everybody was delighted to get a chance to stretch his legs, 
and North Sydney was quickly overrun by what looked like a 
band of pirates, for every one rushed on shore in sea-clothes. 
It did not take the crowd long to discover a restaurant, 
and soon there gathered here a festive throng who managed 
to sing and eat at the same time ; next to the dining- 
room was a sitting-room furnished with a melodeon, which 
was kept in constant service by some musical members 
of the company. Suddenly there passed by. the windows a 
band of the Salvation Army, and then there was a general 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIEANDA. 21 

rush. Grave professors, students, and sportsmen all joined 
in a grand triumphal march in the wake of the Salvationists, 
and lifted up their voices in a hymn to the tune of "March- 
ing through Georgia." It was an extraordinary procession as 
it passed along the main street chanting to the accompaniment 
of a most vigorous and well-meaning, if erratic, band. Never 
before, perhaps, had this section of the Army of the Lord 
gathered in so many stray sheep. 

I shall never forget the look of joy upon the face of an old 
salt who marched at the head of the procession beating a 
bass-drum with a nervous energy, as if he were thumping the 
very devil himself. At length a little, low meeting-house was 
reached, and when we had filed in and taken our seats the 
usual singing and clapping was gone through with. Pale, 
nervous -looking women, clad in the ungainly uniform of the 
Salvationists, with a wild, fanatical look in their eyes, hopped 
up and down on the stage, clapping their hands and chanting. 
Then came an address from the captain of the band, a strange 
hotch-potch, interspersed with many " glories " and "amens." 
He pictured the glories of the hereafter for the faithful sol- 
diers of the Lord, and the eyes of the pale women gleamed 
with the light of hope and anticipation. " If there is joy in 
heaven," said the captain, raising his voice, " over one sinner 
doing repentance, what must be the joy in heaven when a 
soldier of the Salvation Army enters into the pearly gates ? I 
can picture myself after death ascending upward, and a voice 
saying to me, ' Who comes here ?' and when I answer, 'Jim 
Watson is coming/ oh, I can hear the echoes ringing through 
heaven — ' Jim Watson is coming, Jim Watson is coming ! ' 
Oh, I tell you, friends, there will be exceeding joy in heaven 
upon that day \" And so he went on in his simple egotism. 
Indeed, I hope that Mr. Jim Watson's reception in heaven 
will be more enthusiastic than the one he was accorded by his 
hearers ; for the natives of Sydney did not appear to respond 



22 THE LAST CKTJTSE OF THE MIKAXDA. 

heartily to the enthusiasm of the Salvationists. In fact, the 
people of Sydney seem to have made up their minds about 
this life and the next one, and perhaps they prefer to solve 
both of these problems by the lights that have already been 
given them. 

There was another subject upon which the inhabitants of 
Sydney seemed to have made up their minds, and that was 
that we were a band of rash and foolhardy men, doomed 
to certain destruction. An iron ship, they declared, was not 
fit to make the voyage to the Arctic regions; it would be 
smashed by the ice. We smiled at such prophecies then, but 
later on we took them more seriously. One ancient oracle, a 
prophet of wind and wave and ice, who appeared to have 
honor even in his own country, was appealed to for his 
opinion. After the manner of many another oracle, he shook 
his head, gave a significant look, and said solemnly that he 
did not like to express his opinion in our presence. Had he 
doomed us to certain death he could not have thrown a 
deeper gloom upon the assembled company. 

From North Sydney to Sydney proper is a pleasant half- 
hour's ride by ferry. At Sydney is a fine summer hotel, which 
had just been completed at the time of our visit. It is run 
by a Bostonian, Colonel Brownell Granger. Indeed, Boston 
capital seems to be doing a good deal for the development of 
Cape Breton. A party of four of us drove out to some rich 
copper-mines in the vicinity — a fine drive through a rolling 
and beautiful country — and were taken about the mines by the 
manager, Mr. Isaac P. Gragg, also from Boston. The mines 
are operated by a Boston firm, the Eastern Development 
Company. We were allowed to inspect them thoroughly, and 
descended the shaft, in the bucket the miners go down in, to 
the depth of six hundred feet. It was, of course, as black as 
pitch soon after we left the mouth of the shaft; but we 
each held a candle in one hand, and held on to the chain of 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 23 

the bucket with the other. We were rigged out in oilskin 
suits before descending, in order to preserve our clothes from 
contact with the slimy sides of the tunnels, and resembled a 
religious procession as we slowly walked on a narrow rail along 
the winding slippery tunnels, holding the lighted tapers before 
us. When we had been carefully hoisted to the welcome day- 
light again, and after we had removed our oilskins and 
washed the oozy copper slime from our hands, we adjourned to 
the country residence of the genial host of the Sydney Hotel, 
who was giving a lunch that day to a party of mining en- 
gineers and the lady members of their families. We had 
a delightful lunch, and were most agreeably and hospitably 
entertained. As we were seated on the broad veranda enjoy- 
ing some of Colonel Granger's choice cigars, a Scotch bag- 
piper chanced along, with a company of two young men, an 
elderly woman, and a very venerable and silver-haired dame. 
It was a veritable pied piper who had appeared among us, and 
he soon had his little company dancing a unique and vigor- 
ous Scotch breakdown. The very old dame in particular 
danced with remarkable vigor, and displayed unlooked-for 
agility and friskiness. 

" And the gray grand-sire skilled in gestic lore 
Hath skipped beneath the burden of four score." 

It was wonderful to behold this venerable girl skipping with 
graceful agility beneath her burden of fourscore. I am some- 
what her junior, but I should not have liked to have en- 
gaged to dance her down. She was apparently as fresh after 
the dance as at the beginning of it, though she must have 
tramped a good distance that day, for we were many miles 
from town. We took a picture of the scene ; but this, together 
with by far the greater number of photographs that were 
taken on the expedition, is with the Miranda at the bottom 
of the sea. 



24 THE LAST CEXJISE OF THE MIKANDA. 

Sydney is a very attractive place, with green sloping 
banks tha£ run down to meet the still waters of a beautiful 
cove — waters so deep that the largest vessels can anchor within 
a few yards of the shore ; and here British and French war- 
ships are to be seen during the summer. Now that the town 
possesses a commodious hotel, furnished with every modern 
convenience, it must become a popular resort for sportsmen 
and tourists. There are plenty of salmon and trout in the 
adjacent streams, as well as fine salt-water fishing ; then, as 
regards hunting, there are partridge, snipe, woodcock, curlew, 
and plover to be found in abundance, while within a day's 
journey are the magnificent hunting-grounds of the North 
Cape. Here is an immense tract covered with primeval woods, 
where bear, moose, and caribou wander about at will. The 
interior of these forests has never been fully explored, and 
but rarely echoes to the crack of the huntsman's rifle. 

The people of Cape Breton Island are mainly of Scotch 
descent, and mining and fishing are their chief industries. 
The island is completely seamed with veins of coal, and the 
enormous mines at North Sydney run far out under the sea. 
These mines are also owned by an American syndicate. About 
a mile from North Sydney live a tribe of Mic-Mac Indians, 
who support themselves by making baskets and other utensils 
and trinkets. They are entirely independent, and are fairly 
intelligent. The chiefs and sages of the tribe dwell in little 
houses, and the others content themselves with wigwams. 

We took in a supply of coal, some provisions, and live 
stock, at North Sydney, and then went gayly on our way, 
feeling that we had sufficient resources to take us up to the 
North Pole and back again if need be. It had been the 
original intention to go from Sydney through the straits of 
Belle Isle ; but so much ice was reported that Captain Farrell 
made his course around Newfoundland instead. On the morn- 
ing of Sunday, July 15, the forbidding and frowning coast of 







MATE MANUEL AND PILOT DUMPHY. 



26 THE LAST CEUTSE OP THE MIRANDA. 

Newfoundland loomed up before us through a fog. As one 
of our compasses needed repairing it was decided to run into 
the capital city, St. Johns, in order to have the necessary 
adjustments made. The city is snugly hidden in a beautiful 
harbor behind high hills, and is a sudden revelation after 
entering the narrow channel that flows into the harbor. At 
the mouth of this channel we beheld our first iceberg — a very 
small affair when compared with the countless numbers that 
appeared to us later ; but as it was the first one, and as we had 
not then formed standards of comparison, the baby berg cre- 
ated much excitement, if not enthusiasm. 

We remained at St. Johns long enough for the party to 
land and stretch their legs for a few hours. The city pre- 
sents a fine appearance from the harbor, but it has not yet 
recovered from the terrible fire which swept it in 1892, and 
whose devastations are only too apparent when a landing has 
been effected. A great many ruins are to be seen, especially 
of public buildings which were swept away ; temporary and 
unsightly small wooden structures have been erected until 
better ones come in course of time ; for St. Johns has not 
risen out of its ashes with the rapidity of Chicago and Boston ; 
the mills of God grind slowly there, and the rapidity of Yankee 
methods is unknown. 

At St. Johns, though we were there but a few hours, we 
were greeted again with all sorts of dire prophecies concern- 
ing our folly in venturing northward in an iron ship. It was, 
therefore, a considerable relief to all on board when Dr. Cook 
returned from a pilgrimage to the shore, bringing with him a 
veteran ice-pilot in the person of Mr. Patrick Dumphy, who 
had been mate of the Kite on Peary's first expedition in 
search of the Pole, and who was looked upon as a standard 
authority on Arctic navigation. Mr. Dumphy's services had 
been secured as ice-pilot, and he proved to be an oracle, some- 
thing upon the pattern of the famous Jack Bunsby, guide, 



THE LAST CETJTSE OP THE MIRANDA. 27 

philosopher, and friend to our old friend Captain Cuttle. 
Mr. Dumphy's oracular manner, and the significant nods 
that accompanied his Delphic utterances, seemed to restore 
complete confidence to the hearts of the timid ones, and so in 
high feather and with large hopes we steamed out of the now 
moonlit harbor, out into the open sea. 

During the afternoon I had seized the occasion to call upon 
our consul at St. Johns, Mr. Molloy, whom I found to be a very 
agreeable gentleman. He has been stationed at his present 
post for over twenty years, and has served longer than any 
other American consul. He had known all the Arctic 
explorers for the past quarter of a century, and had many in- 
teresting personal recollections. He told me that the famous 
explorer Hall, who at one time was supposed to have been 
poisoned by some of his crew, really died of eating too much 
cake. He was inordinately fond of cake, and ate three pounds 
of a rich compound one night — a feat that put a sudden end 
to his explorations. 

As I was returning to the ship after my visit I was joined 
by a member of the Newfoundland Parliament, McGrath 
(pronounced McG-raw) by name — a jovial, hearty - looking 
man, who came on board and entered into conversation at 
once with a party gathered there. When we explained our 
intention of entering Melville Bay he looked both surprised 
and amused. " Well, well," he remarked, " any one who 
would go to the Arctic regions for amusement would go to 
Sheol for recreation." Extremes sometimes meet, but though 
we came near it, perhaps, we did not finally find the Arctic 
regions a gateway to that eternally warm welcome we are told 
awaits the unregenerate. 

Upon invitation I accompanied my new-found friend on 
shore again, and we spent some time in discussing the peculiar 
state of Newfoundland politics over an excellent bottle of 
port wine. Then we strolled through the main thoroughfare 



28 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 

of St. Johns. A pretty girl in a pony-chaise drove by, and 
smiled upon us beamingly. My friend, who was deep in 
politics, did not observe ; but I raised my hat and bowed. 
Then the M. P. looked at the retreating chaise, and eyed me 
inquiringly. " I am a worshipper of beauty," I explained ; " I 
always bow to a pretty girl." 

"Urn," said he, "that was my wife." 

On July 16, the day after leaving St. Johns, we passed a 
seemingly unending procession of icebergs, of all sizes and 
shapes. These at times assume most beautiful forms, and 
seem to build themselves better than they know. In par- 
ticular, I shall never forget the striking beauty of one huge 
mass of ice that slowly passed us. In shape it resembled the 
ruins of some vast and magnificent cathedral, and a stately 
and perfect tower rose from the ruins and glinted and gleamed 
in the sun. It seemed as if some great Arctic Michael Angelo 
must have spent his life in giving shape and beauty to so 
grand a pile. The day Avas balmy and clear ; a blue Italian 
sky hung above us, and it was a perfect delight to lie lazily in 
steamer-chairs upon the deck and with half-closed eyes dream- 
ily watch the gleaming ghostly procession go by. One of 
our party counted one hundred and fifty icebergs that day. 
The summer of 1894 was especially prolific in icebergs. 
Wherever we touched in northern latitudes we were told that 
never had there been seen, within the memory of the oldest 
inhabitants, such vast quantities of ice. It is now generally 
understood by those who have studied far northern conditions 
that an unusually early prevalence of icebergs in low latitudes 
indicates a preceding hard winter in Arctic circles, and that 
the region of the northern ice-cap is particularly dangerous. 
Our own experiences, and the disasters that overtook Wellman 
and Jackson during the summer of 1894, all go to confirm 
this theory. 

An iceberg at a convenient distance is a magnificent sight ; 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 29 

it is a thing of beauty that adds a real charm to the monotonous 
expanse of the sea ; but distance lends enchantment to the 
view, as we discovered on the following morning. 

It was foggy now, very foggy, and we were bowling along 
at a speed of about seven knots, on the morning of July 17. 
It was after breakfast, and a quarter after eight o'clock. I was 
standing on deck talking to Dr. Cook and Mr. Kersting, when 
suddenly the signal to reverse the engine was given. Simul- 
taneously we looked forward, and through the dense fog there 
loomed an immense mass of ice directly ahead. It was too 
large a berg to give us time to clear it ; there was nothing to 
be done but to strike it full and square. My eyes were 
fixed upon that great pile of ice with a strange fascination ; 
there was hardly time to think or to have the feeling of 
fear communicated to the brain before, with a great crash, 
we struck the awful wall of ice before us. The iron prow of 
the ship ran right into the berg fully seven feet, and the ice, 
crumbling and breaking from the shock, fell in a great 
shower upon the forward deck. The reverse action of the 
propeller now began to draw us away from the berg, and the 
Miranda backed and careened to one side ; there was a ter- 
rible moment of suspense, and then the vessel righted itself. 
A cry arose to lower the boats, and many rushed to get them 
in readiness. All this took less time than it takes to tell it. 
I had last seen my young charge, Carl Garrison, in our cabin, 
just forward of the dining-room, where he was engaged in 
cleaning his rifle — a favorite pastime of his on dull days, and 
one that brought to him dreams of the polar bear and the wal- 
rus that would fall by it later on. Naturally, I immediately 
went below to hunt for him, and as I passed through the 
dining-room I caught sight of Commodore Gardner coolly 
finishing his breakfast, as if unaware of the terrific shock that 
had made havoc with the plates and dishes. I caught sight 
of other forms also, rushing about in wild confusion. Cap- 



30 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

tain Farrell came flying down and ordered all hands on deck. 
I passed quickly forward of the saloon to look for Carl, and 
was greatly relieved to find that no water was leaking in. 
Carl was not below, so I seized two overcoats from our cabin 
and speedily made my way on deck again, where I found my 
charge looking quite cool, as he had a right to look, being sur- 
rounded by a lot of 
broken ice. Indeed, 
there was no real 
panic, and for a lot 
of hitherto inex- 
perienced Arctic 
explorers the party 

as a whole certainly >; 

behaved re- . 
markably 
well. It 
was quickly r9%M -' J 




ascertained that notwithstanding the severity of the shock 
the damage that had been done was not so serious as to 
endanger the ship. This, of course, was a great relief to 
every one on board ; for it would have been an inauspicious 
day to have taken to the boats, on account of the very heavy 
fog all around us. We had fortunately struck a projecting 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 31 

portion of the berg above our water-line, so that the blow 
came upon the upper starboard bow-plates ; three of these were 
cracked or stove in, the hole running upward from about 
fifteen feet above the water-line. It was a great piece of 
luck that we did not strike the great mass of ice below the 
water which forms by far the greater part of an iceberg, the 
proportion of ice under the water to that above it being about 
eight to one. It was the projecting ice above that saved us 
from tearing out the bottom of the ship by striking the vast 
mass below ; had we hit upon this, my readers would have 
been spared this narrative. 

As the Miranda steamed cautiously forward again we 
passed close to the berg that had so nearly caused our ruin, 
and it certainly was an awe-inspiring mass of ice — perhaps 
a thousand feet in length and upward of two hundred feet 
high. We could see the hole that we had made, smeared 
as if with blood, from red paint about the prow of the 
Miranda. Slowly the great berg disappeared into the fog, 
which had somewhat lifted, and we were much relieved to 
get out of its dangerous proximity. There were plenty more 
of its companions, however, silently and slowly moving south- 
ward, so that a sharp lookout was kept as we went onward 
toward Cape Charles harbor, on the Labrador coast, about 
twenty-five miles away, and the nearest port to put in for re- 
pairs. A meeting of the passengers was called soon after 
the collision, and it was decided to put in to Cape Charles for 
repairs, and then continue on our journey. We reached 
Cape Charles early in the afternoon ; but as we had a variety 
of experiences and adventures before we again put out from 
this port, it will be well to relate them in a succeeding 
chapter. 



CHAPTEK II. 




It was early in the afternoon of July 
17 that we steamed slowly into the 
harbor of Cape Charles, on the bleak 
coast of Labrador. High barren hills 
rose all around us, destitute of vegeta- 
tion for the most part, except that here 
and there a kindly moss covered their 
nakedness ; a few small houses of fisher- 
men perched on rocks constituted the 
settlement. Not a very inviting shore, 
but still it was not long before we were 
upon it ; for it was always a delight 
to leave the cramped quarters on our 
vessel and be able to stretch our legs with freedom. It 
did not take us long to form the acquaintance of most 
of the population of Cape Charles, because the population 
consists only of a half-dozen families, augmented some- 
what in the fishing season by a few fishermen from 
Newfoundland. In the winter time the people literally 
take to the woods — that is, they retire into winter quarters 
in some woods about nine miles away. Very simple, very 
monotonous, and very dull is the life of a Labrador fisher- 
man. He fishes and he eats and he sleeps, and that tells 
about the whole story. He is always in debt to the company 
that runs the fisheries, and so he can sell his fish only to the 
company, who take care to keep him in debt by charging him 
very high prices for his few necessaries of life. I sat fre- 
quently by the fireside of one family in particular, by the 
name of Pye, with whom I ingratiated myself by presenting 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



33 



a few copies of old magazines, which I could see were highly 
appreciated, for literature is very scarce at Cape Charles, and 
these magazines will probably become family heirlooms. 
From chatting with this family I learned that this is the modus 
vivendi of the inhabitants of these regions : The men fish in 
summer, of course, and in the fall they chop and saw wood, and 




THE PYE FAMILY. 

do odd jobs of various kinds in preparation for the rigors of the 
winter ; in winter they mend nets and boats, and thus prepare 
for summer, or the fishing season, for there is no spring worth 
speaking of ; the ice blocks them until June. They hunt in 
the winter also, and set their traps ; and this is their chief ex- 
citement, as also their chief means for procuring food. The 
principal game consists of rabbits, ptarmigan, spruce par- 



34 THE LAST CRUISE OE THE MIRANDA. 

tridges, porcupine, and deer. The men build little cabins 
about the deer-hunting grounds in the interior, and from them 
they will start out in the very early morning and hunt all day 
long, and tramp for forty or fifty miles over hills and gorges, 
carrying with them but the scantiest supply of food. They 
will sometimes remain in these cabins, and continue this sort 
of a life, despite all kinds of inclement weather, for a month at 
a time. Deer are not plentiful, and are hard to get, but the 
porcupine is found in greater numbers and is easily killed. 
The Canadian porcupine is an animal more or less peculiar to 
this region. It comes out of its hiding-places in winter and is 
easily tracked in the snow. Its food is the berry and the bark 
of trees, which it gnaws in such a manner as to be easily recog- 
nized by the hunter. When overtaken on the ground it rolls 
itself up in a ball and erects its spines for a defence ; when 
pursued it shows great agility in taking to the tree-tops. The 
lives of the women, as is generally the case everywhere, are more 
monotonous and confined than those of the men. They stay at 
home and cook, and make all the clothes and boots. These lat- 
ter are made of sealskin, and very good boots they are, too; and 
some of the women help in cleaning and preparing the fish, 
which are salted away in the storehouses. Of course, they do 
some fancy-work also. Is there a spot on the face of the 
globe where the women do not do fancy-work in some form or 
other ? It is one of the prerogatives and a universal habit of 
the sex, and one deserving of every encouragement. Barren 
as are the interiors of the little houses in Labrador, they are 
still relieved by bits of color, which the women weave into 
appropriate forms. Hassocs, watch-cases, pouches, and cush- 
ions are the main forms that fancy-work takes in Labrador. 
The hassocs are a series of pockets made out of long strips of 
cloth and prettily set off with ribbons and beadwork in a vari- 
ety of ways according to the taste of the maker. Of course, 
in so sparsely settled and busy a place there can be little 




Hi 



36 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIEANDA. 

general intercourse or social amusements. A dance takes 
place occasionally, and this is always a great event. We had 
a dance during our stay, which was quite a unique affair ; but 
the native ladies were shy of dancing with us, and our dances 
were strange to them, so our mainstays were the two Eskimo 
girls, Mary and Clara, who were quite equal to the occasion, 
and enjoyed exceedingly being the belles of the ball. Our 
orchestra was the old man Peter, the father of the girls, who 
played the fiddle ; so it was mainly the Eskimos who kept the 
ball rolling. We danced by the light of a few dim lanterns 
in a little storehouse whose floor was so slippery with cod- 
liver oil that we had to throw salt upon it to increase the 
friction, and enable us to retain our equilibrium. All the 
elite of Cape Charles attended, which added to the group of 
wallflowers very materially, and encroached upon the dancing 
space. It was a remarkable scene altogether, and our pho- 
tographer, Mr. Kersting, took an excellent flash-light picture 
of it ; but, alas ! this, together with a vast number of other 
photographs, many of them of scenes and places never before 
seen by white men, went down with the unfortunate Miranda. 

Of course, our vessel was an object of great interest to the 
Cape Charles people : so large a steamer had never been 
there before. We were as popular as a circus in the rural 
districts of the United States, and the men brought their 
wives and children over to look at the wonders of the ship, 
and to see the sheep on board — natural curiosities which 
were much admired and never before seen in that place. 
One old fellow was very much struck with the ice-water 
cooler ; he thought it the most remarkable piece of mechan- 
ism that he had ever seen, and never tired of standing by it 
and watching people, as they drew a glass of water, with 
open-mouthed admiration. 

There was always quite a collection of small fishing craft 
which kept in the neighborhood of the Miranda, in wait for 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 37 

any fishing parties that might be going out. It was diffi- 
cult to know what to pay the fishermen for their services, 
as the general medium of exchange throughout Labrador is 
trade ; money is seldom used, and its relative value is but 
dimly appreciated. As the natives do not know well the 
value of their own money, American money caused great con- 
fusion among them ; they took it, but they could not dis- 
tinguish denominations — a one-dollar bill meant as much to 
them as a ten. 

Cod is the staple fish along the Labrador coast. They 
can be hauled up almost anywhere, and though a mess of 
fresh cod is by no means to be despised, still the catching 
of them is not very fascinating sport. We do not care for 
anything in life that is too easily acquired — and cod is so dead 
easy ! However, the fishermen do not take this point of view — 
the easier the fishing, and the more that come to their nets, the 
merrier ; and so cod is a very popular fish about Labrador. 
Indeed, in the local vernacular, cod alone is fish, salmon 
is salmon, herring is herring, and trout is trout ; but cod is 
fish, and nothing else is called fish. Such is the devotion to 
cod at Cape Charles that the fishermen seem to swear by it, 
for I often heard them mutter something that sounded very 
much like "By Cod!" 

But there is plenty of other sport besides cod -fishing. 
There is, I was informed, excellent duck-shooting all along 
the coast in the spring and autumn. Eider-ducks abound, 
as do guillemots, puffin, murres, and auks. These birds 
collect by the thousands, and will keep the sportsman just as 
busy as he pleases. In July, during our brief stay, we found 
the guillemot particularly abundant, and quite a number of 
these birds were bagged. It is a very pretty bird, a glossy 
black, with carmine legs and beak, but rather hard to kill, 
because it dives at the flash ; it is very quick and nimble, 
and can swim a great distance under water. "When hit, it 



38 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

does not give up the ghost easily, but will, unless struck in a 
vital part, dive, and often several charges will have to be 
pumped into it before it can be captured. On the wing, it 
flies rapidly, but low aud straight. From behind a ledge in a 
neighborhood where these birds congregate, one can get excel- 
lent wing-shooting. Later on, we came across numbers of 
guillemot along the fiords of Greenland. 

Once in a while in the winter a polar bear comes floating 
down to Cape Charles, and is sure to be given a warm recep- 
tion. A splendid specimen kindly brought his skin down 
with him and left it on the Labrador coast in the winter of 
1894. The entire male population turned out to greet him, 
and it was not long before poor bruin was overtaken, flounder- 
ing about helplessly in the snow, and he was easily induced 
to part with his hide. Dr. Cook purchased the skin from one 
of the fishermen, and it is now hanging up in the fore-cabin 
of the Miranda, very safe from rats, but perhaps food for fishes. 

Battle Harbor lies across the bay from Cape Charles, a dis- 
tance of five or six miles. I could never get a satisfactory 
explanation of why it was called Battle Harbor, for several 
old inhabitants whom I interviewed all had different stories 
to tell, although they all agreed that a battle had been fought 
there in very early times. Some said the battle was between 
the English and Eskimos, others betAveen the English and In- 
dians, and still others held that the battle was fought between 
Indians and Eskimos. The settlement is a very important 
place, viewed from the Labrador standpoint ; it contains 
about fifty houses, and a mail steamer calls every fortnight 
during the summer from St. Johns, Newfoundland. Like 
most of the Labrador settlements, its population consists 
principally of dogs. There are at least a dozen dogs to each 
family, and one cannot enter a house without walking over a 
number of them. Luckily, they are good-natured and kindly 
disposed toward strangers, as are their masters. We made up 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 39 

a small party and went over to Battle Harbor in a couple of 
lifeboats, rowing past some very interesting stranded icebergs 
on the way. With Dr. E. M. Cramer I subsequently rowed 
under one of these bergs, and though we got an ice-cold 
shower-bath from the constant drip overhead, we were well re- 
paid. There were numerous caverns opening a few feet above 
the water, and into one of these we rowed. Its dome and sides 
were of a gorgeous blue, and the ice beneath the wonderfully 
clear water gleamed and glinted from below : it seemed like 
the entrance to a fairv structure, and we almost looked for a 




A STRANDED BERG. 

mermaid to arise to guide us through the labyrinths of this 
wonderful ice-palace. 

At Battle Harbor we were hospitably entertained by the 
agent of the owners of the fisheries, Mr. Hall, who introduced 
us to a favorite Labrador drink made from a mixture of spruce- 
beer and rum. Spruce-beer is a very popular drink in Labra- 
dor, and every well-regulated family keeps a supply on hand ; 
rum is also popular, bat rarer. 

There is a neat little hospital in the place, supported 
by the English Missions to the Deep Sea Fisheries ; it 



40 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



is under the charge of a bright -faced young English 
nurse, who has a native assistant. A young doctor is sent 
over during the summer season, but returns to England 
for the winter. The brave young nurse stays all the 
year round, notwithstanding the rigors of the winter season, 
and acts the part of both nurse and doctor during the long 
months when the ice has cut off all communication with the 
outer world. A few of us greatly enjoyed an impromptu 
afternoon tea gotten up for us by the nurse, in which the 
doctor participated ; indeed, we were entertained by an angel 
unawares, for some staunch hot buns and comfortable sand- 
wiches that we ate stood us in lieu of the dinner we expected 
to have on the Miranda; for it was many hours before 

we tasted food 
again. This 
was the reason : 
When we start- 
ed on the return 
trip the wind 
was so strong, 
and the waves 
were running 
so high, that we 
decided to skirt 
around some 
islands and to 
get back to the 
ship by a much 
longer but more 
sheltered route. 
"The longest way round is the shortest way home,' 7 says 
an old saw ; but I have never known it to work. After 
rowing for miles, with the waves dashing over us every 
now and then, we found it impossible to make any headway 




THE DESERT ISLAND. 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 41 

against wind and tide in trying to round a point, and 
were obliged to put in to shore upon a desert island — a 
bleak and barren spot, offering but little shelter. "We gathered 
some scrubby underbrush, however, and stretched ourselves, 
thoroughly tired out with our struggles with wind and wave 
and oar, around the fire that we built. Spasmodic attempts 
were made to keep up a cheerful conversation ; but as there 
was nothing to eat or drink, and as most of us were pretty 
well drenched, it would have taxed Mark Tapley himself to 
have kept up an appearance of jollity. There was a sense of 
desolateness about the place hard to describe, while the wind 
moaned dismally over it. 

' ' — A wind that shrills 
Over a waste land, where no one comes, 
Or has come since the making of the world." 

The moon rose cold and clear, and looked down upon a 
dejected and shivering group huddled around a flickering fire. 
It was cold, very cold, and the wind still blew, and the great 
waves dashed against the rocky shore. At length, some time 
after midnight, there came a lull in the tempest, and we 
gladly took to our boats again. It was a long, hard pull 
against wind and tide ; but very beautiful seemed the barren, 
rocky islands in the now bright moonlight, and the sky up 
above was a wonder and a revelation, with the great northern 
lights ever and anon streaming over it, then dimming and 
dying, then flashing out again in long, shining clouds that lit 
up earth and sky. It was three o'clock in the morning before 
we reached our home on the rolling deep, and never did the 
Miranda's lights seem more welcome to us than when they 
gleamed over the waters in the gray dawn of that morning. 

Later on that day, July 21, a communication from Captain 
Farrell was read by Dr. Cook to the assembled members of 
the expedition. This stated that it would be necessary to 



42 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

return to St. Johns, Newfoundland, for more permanent 
repairs. Temporary repairs had been completed, but as there 
were no extra plates on board, nor any way of procuring such, 
the engineers had cut a plate from the iron protection sur- 
rounding the forward hatch, between the upper and main 
decks ; but as tools were lacking to cut this plate properly, it 
so covered the hawser pipe as to render the starboard anchor 
unavailable. Therefore, Captain Farrell deemed it unsafe to 
proceed northward, and there was nothing to be done but to 
beat a retreat to St. Johns and remain there until satisfactory 
repairs could be completed. This was very discouraging to 
all ; but we had to bow to the inevitable. 

Five of our party had already made up their minds to give 
up the trip, and had started on a hunting jaunt toward the 
interior of Labrador. These were the Messrs. C. P. and 
T. J. Lineaweaver, and E. DeP. Tytus, of Yale College ; 
Walter S. Root, of Cleveland, Ohio, and S. G. Tenney, of Wil- 
liamstown, Mass. The party camped in the Labrador woods 
for seventeen days, and enjoyed excellent sport both with gun 
and rod. They captured one bear and several lynxes, and 
shot great quantities of grouse and other small game. One 
of the party, Mr. Tytus, had quite an experience with a lynx. 
He shot it and thought that it was dead, but on approaching 
the supposed corpse the lynx suddenly sprang upon him and tore 
his clothes to shreds before it received its final coup de grace. 
On their return along the coast the party shot a number of 
seal and guillemots. In the Labrador streams they found 
trout and salmon, — trout exceedingly plentiful, — and caught 
them in such quantities that, as one of the party said to me 
on a chance meeting in New York, " We are afraid to talk in 
figures — everybody would think we were simply telling fish 
stories." 

One discomfort of the short summer season in Labrador 
is the extraordinary variations of temperature. The party 



44 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

had a thermometer with them, which would stand at per- 
haps below the freezing-point early in the morning, but by- 
high noon the mercury sometimes mounted upward of a hun- 
dred degrees in the sun. None of the party, however, suf- 
fered any ill effects. They enjoyed perfect health, and were 
greatly pleased with their outing. 

On the evening of July 21 Professor Hite and his party, 
consisting of Messrs. Howard Bucknell, George M. Coates, 
and G-. H. Perkins, of Philadelphia, left the ship to start 
upon their journey into the interior of Labrador. Professor 
Hite's original intention had been to land in the neighbor- 
hood of Eigolette, but the iceberg incident caused him to 
make a change of plan. As the small party of explorers 
rowed away from the ship in two little skiffs, towing their 
tents and provisions in tenders behind them, they were given 
three rousing cheers. 

The party made their way to Independent Harbor on the 
regular mail-boat which runs during the summer from Cape 
Charles. From there they secured passage in a small boat to 
Separation Point, a narrow point of land separating the White 
Bear from the Eagle River. Here a cache was made for pro- 
visions, and the party started to explore the White Bear 
River. On the second day they came to a cataract sixty feet 
in height. Mr. Bucknell had been taken quite ill, so a camp 
was pitched at the foot of the falls, and he was left in 
the care of Mr. Coates, while Professor Hite and Mr. Perkins 
continued the exploration of the river, which they ascended a 
distance of nearly two hundred miles from its mouth. The 
river terminated in a chain of small lakes. Upon returning 
to the camp Mr. Buckneirs condition had not improved, and 
he was sent over to Cartwright, the most southern and eastern 
Hudson Bay trading-post on the Labrador shore. The other 
members of the party then continued the exploration of the 
Eagle and Paradise rivers. On the banks of the Paradise 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 45 

Eiver they found an abundance of plants not noted in the 
more mountainous districts, and they also came across a great 
many species of water-birds. They procured a number of 
seal along this river, and found abundance of trout. On the 
north side of Sandwich Bay, on a mountain nineteen hundred 
feet in height, quite a number of caribou were seen, and some 
of them secured. The party obtained in all thirty-nine species 
of mammals and seventy-seven species of birds, all of which, 
with the exception of two, are listed by Professor Packard in 
his work " The Labrador Coast." Mr. Coates made a large 
collection of plants, and five species of butterflies not men- 
tioned by Professor Packard were procured. The party left 
Oartwright on September 14 for Pilley's Island, off the New- 
foundland coast, and there caught the steamer Sylvia for 
New York, where they arrived on September 30, very nearly 
three months from the date of the start. 

The party of Eskimos also left us to take the mail steamer 
at Battle Harbor and go onward to Eigolette; and still another 
party silently stole away in the small hours of the morning. 
This was composed of Eobert D. Perry, of Phillipston, Mass. ; 
William Bryce, Jr., of New York, and Dr. Willis A. Keeve, 
of Patchogue, L. I. These three men suddenly made up 
their minds that night to take the bird in the hand, and 
make sure of some hunting in Labrador, rather than take 
the risk of being dry-docked in St. Johns. They pushed 
their way onward toward Eigolette, enjoyed some excellent 
sport in this vicinity, and got safely back to New York 
somewhat in advance of the party they had left behind. 

A heavy fog had closed about the Miranda, but early in 
the morning of the 22d it lifted sufficiently to enable the ship 
to start on its retreat to St. Johns. All day long, however, 
progress was very slow ; for the fog descended again like a 
curtain, and now and then the ghostly shapes of huge ice- 
bergs could be dimly discerned. The passengers made up a 



46 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIBANDA. 



watch among themselves that night to supplement the regu- 
lar watch. It fell to my lot to watch from two till three in 
the'morning. This was one of the longest hours I ever spent, 
on account of the dull monotony of straining the eyes to 
seaward and seeing nothing ; not an iceberg loomed in sight. 





Once, when the fog had lifted a trifle, some commotion 
was excited by the sailor who was on watch with me singing 
out: "A light on the starboard bow!" Immediately the 
fog-whistle was set to blowing, and Mr. Dumphy, the ice- 
pilot, came rushing forward. "Where's the light ?" said he. 
" Over there/' said the sailor. "Humph I" said Pilot Dum- 



THE LAST CUUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 



47 



phy, after gazing intently for a minute or so, "that's nothing 
but a star," and lie went back to his perch by the wheel- 
house much disgruntled. 

Later in the day the fog lifted entirely, and we were 
enabled to proceed at full speed. We passed many icebergs 
on the way, and by midnight we were once more anchored 
safe and sound in the landlocked harbor of St. Johns. 




' - 



CHAPTER III. 




It seemed like an old story 
to be back at St. Johns again, 
for though we had stopped 
there but a few hours when 
going to the northward, yet 
both harbor and city are apt 
to impress themselves upon 
one at a glance and to remain 
fixed in one's memory. Of course, our second arrival created 
no little excitement, especially after the news of the collision 
with the iceberg had circulated through the town, and the 
prophets gathered about us and reminded us of their warnings. 
The realization of a dire prophecy is the greatest happiness that 
can come to the heart of a prophet, and so our return brought 
exceeding great joy to several of the local seers. 

As we knew that we were in for a stay of several days, we 
proceeded to enjoy ourselves as much as possible, and were 
aided and abetted in these efforts by a number of the kind 
and hospitable citizens of St. Johns. The doors of the City 
Club — the principal social club — were thrown open to us, and 
this became a headquarters and general meeting-place for the 
members of the expedition. Here were fine, large reading- 
rooms, in which we found all the leading American magazines 
and papers, a beautiful billiard-room, and an excellent cafe. 
Those only who have been cooped up in the narrow confines 
of a ship can appreciate the comfort that such a club can 
bring. 

St. Johns is a capital place to spend the midsummer in. 
It is cool and pleasant, and has charming surroundings. 



THE LAST CKUISE OP THE MIRANDA. 



49 



Within its confines is a fine sheet of fresh water ; Quidi Vidi 
Lake it is called, or rather it is spelled that way, and com- 
monly called Kitty Viddy. The lake is admirably adapted 
for aquatic sports, and here annual regattas take place in the 
month of August, and are, I am told, very exciting affairs, 
attended by the entire population. 



▲ ^M 




^ — ^» 






p*s 




rn^y ^\\ 


•'^S. 


•** 



ON THE ROAD TO TOPSAIL. 



About a dozen miles from St. Johns is one of the most 
charming resorts that it has ever been my good fortune to 
visit. It is known as Topsail Beach. There are no large 
hotels there — in fact, no hotels at all, but only several small but 
neat and pretty inns, or boarding-houses ; for Topsail yet awaits 
the magic touch of capital to broadly popularize it. As it is, 
nature has been very lavish to the place, and its situation and 



50 THE LAST CETJISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

the country surrounding it are very beautiful. I ran out there 
one fine Saturday afternoon with Professor Freeman, under 
the escort of Mr. McG-rath, the bright young editor of the 
St. Johns Herald, who gave us much information about 
Newfoundland in general on the way. The train was 
crowded with excursionists running out for an afternoon's or 
a Sunday's outing ; and a very bright, healthy, happy-looking 
lot of people they were. The ride afforded us many pretty 
glimpses of lake and woodland, but these were to be eclipsed by 
the first view of Topsail. It is situated on a magnificent bay 
called Conception, so named by the pious Portuguese navi- 
gator, Gaspar Cortereal, in the year 1500 — a beautiful 
sheet of water gently rolling in upon a pebbly beach. The 
surrounding country is wild and rugged, and the combination 
of hills and forests and sea makes up an ideal resort, whether 
one wishes merely to loaf and enjoy his soul, or to hunt in 
the woodlands, or fish upon the sea. We took supper at one 
of the little inns, which had a number of small dining-rooms, 
so that parties could sup together without intrusion, and 
after enjoying a very comfortable and cozy meal we returned 
to St. Johns exceedingly pleased with our trip. 

Indeed, I found the surroundings of St. Johns so very 
attractive that I much regretted I could not run farther into 
the interior, where many beautiful spots are to be found, and 
which is a paradise for the sportsman. But day and night 
the workmen were hammering away at the Miranda's bow, 
and it was only a question of a few days before she would be 
ready to start again on her northward journey. 

The interior of Newfoundland has never yet been fully 
explored ; and in the dense forests that dot it, as well as in 
the more open country, an abundance of game is to be found. 
In 1822 a Scotchman named Cormack crossed the island from 
east to west at its broadest point, but his journey has never 
been repeated. It is said that great numbers of caribou and 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 51 

moose are to be found in the interior, while the countless 
lakes and ponds abound with trout, and are the abodes of 
wild geese, duck, and other fresh-water fowl. Beaver and 
otter also dwell in these lonely lakes. Ptarmigan, curlew, 
plover, and snipe are found all over the island, on the great 
barrens or in the marshy grounds, and Arctic hare and rab- 
bits also abound. 

Of course, the cod is the great fish about Newfoundland, 
for here are the greatest cod fisheries in the world ; the fish- 
eries off the Labrador coast are controlled by Newfoundland, 
as the territory is under the jurisdiction of the latter. 
The second great industry of the island is the seal fishery, 
the products derived therefrom forming about one-eighth 
of its entire exports. In olden times this industry was 
carried on solely by sailing vessels and boats, but about thirty 
years ago steam sealers were introduced ; and these, of course, 
have a decided advantage over sailing craft. They are power- 
fully built, to withstand the pressure of the ice, and are large 
enough to carry from a hundred to three hundred men ; but 
the men are crowded into very close quarters. The risks of the 
voyage, the adventures in catching seals, and the large gains to 
be derived thereby, attract numbers of volunteers, and of these 
the steamers have the pick. On account of the ice, the law 
does not allow the sealers to clear before March 10, and 
the season lasts but six weeks. It is a common thing for a 
steamer to return in three or four weeks, laden down with 
thirty or forty thousand seals, worth from two to three 
dollars apiece. A third of the proceeds is divided among the 
men ; the captain gets so many cents per seal, and the 
remainder goes to the owner of the vessel. Lying about us 
were quite a fleet of these steam sealers. 

The conviction had forced itself upon us that the Miranda 
was "not the man for Gal way," was not the ship fitted for 
ice-service. It was a question as to whether we could pro- 



52 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIEANDA. 

ceed with any degree of safety ; and we were obliged, much to 
our disappointment, to give up all thought of entering Mel- 
ville Bay, both on account of the delay we had experienced 
and the danger of getting nipped by pack ice, for every one 
said that in such a contingency the Miranda would be crushed 
like an egg-shell. After considerable deliberation and con- 
sulting of authorities, it was decided that it would be safe 
for us to proceed to the southern coast of Greenland ; for, by 
taking the right course, there would be little danger of meet- 
ing much ice at this time of year. Notwithstanding the 
opinion of authorities, however, the people in general looked 
upon us as little less than crazy for attempting to go on at all 
after our unfortunate experience. 

A small party of our excursionists were skirting about the 
suburbs of the town one morning, when they came across the 
lunatic asylum, and thought they would like to inspect it. 
They rang the bell, and the door was opened by an attendant, 
who said that visitors were not admitted upon that day. " We 
come from the Miranda," said one of the party, starting to 
explain. "Oh, walk right in!" immediately responded the 
attendant, and the door was opened wide. The party entered, 
but with an uncanny feeling that the heavy door might close 
upon them and bid them leave all hope behind. Meantime, 
the hammers were dramming merrily on the Miranda night 
and day at her wharf close by the great dry-dock at St. Johns. 
This is one of the largest dry-docks in the world. There 
were three vessels getting repaired in it while we lay by. It 
was erected at a cost of $600,000. It had been dredged out, 
and its sides were heavily timbered in steps. The vessels 
sail in, and then the entrance is closed by a pontoon-gate. 
The water is pumped out by pumps so large and powerful 
that they will empty the basin within four hours. 

On July 28 the hammering ceased, the repairs were com- 
pleted, and we started for Frederickshaab, South Greenland, 



THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



53 



planning to go directly across the straits, and thus avoid the 
Labrador coast and its numerous icebergs. We started at 
about nine o'clock in the evening, but anchored after steam- 
ing out a little way, and did not get well under way until five 
o'clock on the following morning. The day was foggy at first, 
but the fog lifted, and we bowled merrily along, making good 




THE MIRANDA IN DOCK. 



time, and with everybody in high spirits. Shortly after break- 
fast we passed Baccalieu Island, which is most densely popu- 
lated by seagulls. A few shots fired from the ship echoed 
and reverberated about the island, and caused a partial 
eclipse of the sun, on account of the dense mass of gulls that 
circled over us. Not until I saw the wonderful loomeries of 



54 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

Greenland did I behold again such countless myriads of gulls. 
This island is the farthest point out between Conception and 
Trinity bays. By the afternoon the coast had become a dim 
outline, and was soon lost to sight. We passed several mag- 
nificent icebergs — great, gleaming masses of ice, each of 
which on land would have covered acres of ground. The 
ship danced up and down, tossed by billows ; but these 
great icebergs, sinking as they do so far and deep into the sea, 
are not moved by the motions of the surface, and the waves 
dash against them as against a rocky coast, and fall back 
again unheeded. The Arctic explorer Hayes says of icebergs : 
"The iceberg is the largest independent floating body in the 
universe except the heavenly orbs. There is nothing ap- 
proaching it within the range of our knowledge on this globe 
of ours ; and yet it is but a fragment of the ice-stream, which 
in turn is but an arm of the great ice-sea. And yet the iceberg 
is to the Greenland ice as the paring of a finger-nail to the 
human body, as a small chip to the largest oak, as a shovel of 
earth to Manhattan Island." This gives some faint idea 
of the vast amount of ice in the frozen regions of the 
North ; the huge icebergs that passed us were but as little 
chips floating away from the great body of ice they had left 
behind. 

For the first two or three days after leaving St. Johns 
we had fairly clear weather, and made good progress, and then 
a dense fog fell upon us. Day after day we drifted about with- 
out anybody knowing exactly where we were, for no accurate 
observations could be taken. Sometimes the fog would lift 
to reveal to us that we were surrounded by floe ice and ice- 
bergs. For days we coasted along this ice in fog and rain, 
attempting to find a passage through it. The long stretches of 
ice, and the large icebergs towering like mountains above, and 
the roaring of the waves dashing against the ice-floe,[com- 
bined to make a scene both impressive and awful. The 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 55 

fog was very moist, and wet us like rain, great drops of water 
falling from it ; and it grew very cold. 

" And. now there came both mist and snow, 
And it grew wondrous cold : 
And ice mast high came floating by, 
As green as emerald. 

" The ice was here, the ice was there, 
The ice was all around : 
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled 
Like noises in a swound." 

We first saw the Greenland coast early in the morning of 
August 3. The lofty peaks of Mount Nautsarsorfike and 
Mount Kunguat could be discerned, and were perhaps sixty 
or seventy miles distant. There was a great deal of floe ice 
between us and the land, and also on the west of us. Ice- 
pilot Dumphy wished to run through this ice ; but Cap- 
tain Farrell would not hear of it, and we slowly steamed 
westward to make a detour amid numberless pieces of broken 
ice. As 
we looked 
outward 
the ice 
seemed to 
form a 
continu- 
ous line 
along the 
horizon. 

Then the THE GREENLAND C0AST - 

fog, seemingly more dense and heavy than ever, closed all about 
us, and the ship was obliged to lie to with the ice all around it. 
To the west of us there was a continuous roar as of waves 
beating upon a rocky shore, but it was the noise of the ice- 




56 



THE LAST CRUISE OE THE MIRANDA. 



pack. The water was very still, scarcely a ripple on its sur- 
face ; and some of the men took advantage of the calm by 
going out in a small boat and securing a lot of ice from a 
wasted berg near the ship. They lassoed great pieces of ice, 
and in this way got about a ton on board. 

At about six o'clock the fog cleared and disclosed an in- 
teresting state of affairs, for the floe was closing in on us. 
To the west of us was a line of pack ice like a wall, only about 
half a mile away ; it stretched both ways as far as the eye 
could see, while to the east of us was another wall of ice, not 




FLOE ICE. 



so sharply defined, but too much of it to attempt a passage 
through. The Miranda fled in a southeasterly direction, and 
it was a most interesting retreat through shapes and forms of 
ice of all varieties and colors. Blue and green ice we saw of 
different shades, and sometimes ice tinted with red. The 
varying shapes kept us constantly interested, and the forms 
assumed at times by the ice were wonderfully beautiful and 
delicate. Here and there we saw seals, seated on masses of 
ice, who eyed us with evident curiosity, and occasionally a 
whale rose and spouted near the ship. Ice-pilot Dumphy was 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 57 

perched in the shrouds, and reported open places visible 
in a westerly direction. Slowly the ship picked its way 
through the ice-belt, and by half-past seven we got through 
the floe and into clear water, leaving a long line of ice 
behind. 

It was now decided to run up to Disco, rather than try to 
get in at Erederickshaab. But again the fog fell around us on 
the ensuing day, and we drifted about, making little progress. 
We were in latitude 62° 50', and longitude 53° 49'. When- 
ever the fog lifted we could see icebergs about us — which 
made the captain very careful ; and for some days we kept 
drifting about, mostly in fog so dense that no observations 
could be taken. On the morning of August 7, to our sur- 
prise and joy, we discovered that we were in sight of land — 
rugged- and uninviting, to be sure, but still land. High 
mountains, with towering peaks covered with snow, and 
bleak and barren islands, were outlined in the distance. 
There was but little ice in sight, and we headed for the shore, 
with our whistle blowing to attract the attention of any inhab- 
itants, should there prove to be a settlement upon this coast. 
For an hour or so we lay to, blowing our whistle and firing 
the cannon. After a while two little specks were seen afar 
off, and ere long were made out to be Eskimo kayaks. Be- 
fore long a large boat hove in sight, and made directly for the 
ship. Soon it was alongside of us, and proved to contain sev- 
eral Eskimos, who came on board and piloted our vessel into a 
snug little harbor surrounded by islands. Here was a settle- 
ment, and on a hill we saw a flagstaff flying the Danish flag, 
and collected about it a crowd of Eskimos, men and women — 
mostly the latter, who apparently were in a great state of ex- 
citement, and were looking down at us with every indication 
of curiosity and interest. Little houses or igloos were perched 
about on the rocky hills, and near the landing was the more 
commodious house of the Danish governors. The place proved 



58 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 




to be Sukkertoppen (Sugar-loaf), an Eskimo settlement of 
about four hundred people, ruled by Governor Bistrup and 
Assistant Governor Baumann. As soon as the ship dropped 
anchor we were surrounded by a fleet of kayaks and oomiaks — 

or woman's boat. 
It was not long 
before several of 
our boats were 
lowered among 
this, to us, novel 
fleet, and we 
were soon on 
shore. Here the 
entire popula- 
tion, with the 
exception of 
those in the 
boats, had gath- 
ered just in 
front of the gov- 
ernors' house, 
and received us 
with every expression of simple-minded wonder and delight. 
We found that the governors were away for the time being, 
and so we paid our respects to their ladies, and were most 
hospitably entertained by them. After coming out from 
the governors' house we had great sport with the natives. 
The prettiest girls were selected from the crowd, which kept 
in a solid phalanx, and induced, with much difficulty at 
times, for they were not lacking in coquetry, to come 
forward and have their pictures taken. Then we scattered 
over the settlement generally, and the crowd broke and 
followed us about in sections. 

It was not long before the commercial spirit displayed 



DANISH BUILDINGS AT SUKKERTOPPEN. 



60 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

itself on both sides, and many of our party went back to the 
ship to gather trading material which they had brought with 
them. They came back bearing bags of every description 
filled with knickknacks and old clothes. The place looked 
as if it were being overrun with Hebrew peddlers, and the scene 
was comical in the extreme. Some stood up on rocks, sur- 
rounded by an excited crowd of Eskimos, mostly women, and 
auctioned their goods to the highest bidders, or to those who 
displayed the articles they wished, while others made a regu- 
lar house-to-house canvass, and had great times dickering 
with the residents thereof ; for bargaining had to be carried on 
by signs not always rightly interpreted. Such a babel of 
tongues as arose, such shouts of laughter, had probably never 
before been heard in Sukkertoppen. One of our party, who 
had read Mark Twain's story of the " Eskimo Maiden's Eo- 
mance," had purchased a supply of twenty-five hundred large 
and shining fish-hooks with which to dazzle the eyes of the 
natives : nay, he thought almost to blind them with his dis- 
play of wealth. But alas for him, fish-hooks seemed to be a 
drug on the market in this particular settlement, and though 
he pulled whole handfuls of them out from his bag, he pro- 
duced no curiosity or interest. Now I had been led to be- 
lieve by several Arctic explorers whom I had questioned 
before starting that nothing was dearer to the heart of the 
Eskimo than a needle, and the bigger the better. Conse- 
quently, I had purchased a lot of needles so large that as I 
carried them through New York I was in fear of being ar- 
rested for carrying concealed deadly weapons ; but thoughts 
of the fine lot of furs I should bring back in exchange con- 
soled me for the risk. I hummed to myself the song of the 
magnet in " Patience," slightly altered to suit the occasion : 

" For if I can wheedle 
A knife or a needle, 
O why not an Eskimo ? " 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



Gl 



But needles attracted no more attention among the 
inhabitants of Sukkertoppen than did fish-hooks. Some 
knowing ones had probably been here before us and flooded 
the market. Eibbons were the things that went like hot 
cakes, and a man with enough ribbons could soon have owned 
the town. All the women wore ribbons in their hair, which 
was tied up in a top-knot. These ribbons were worn not 
only for ornament, but also 
to designate the lady's con- 
dition. Maids wore red, 
married women blue, wid- 
ows black, and those who 
were neither maid, wife, 
nor widow, green. Some 
of the widows wore black 
and red ribbons interlaced ; 
these formed a sort of 
quick or the dead colors, 
and indicated a willingness 
to marry again. It chanced 
that a young theological 
student of our party had 
brought with him a great 
roll of green ribbon, and 
when he saw how popular 
ribbons appeared to be, he 
brought forth his roll and 
unwound it before a lot of 
maidens and their mam- 
mas. The hilarity that he 
produced embarrassed him, and when he attempted to 
hand his ribbons for examination to any one of them the 
manner in which they ran laughing from him embarrassed 
him all the more, and filled him with astonishment. Never- 




ESKIMO BELLE. 



62 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



theless, he persevered, and produced his ribbons in the midst 
of many a virtuous household. But when an ethnologist of 
the |party, learned in Eskimo lore, explained to him the 

significance of the wearing of 
the green, he immediately re- 
turned to the Miranda, where 
he might blush unseen. 

While the green ribbon 
does not render its wearer a 
social pariah and outcast, as 
did the flaming scarlet letter 
in the days of the Puritans, 
still on the other hand it is 
not a badge of social distinc- 
tion, and its wearers are not 
regarded as the leaders of 
Sukkertoppen's "four hun- 
dred." But then there are 
no social leaders in this primi- 
tive settlement, and no color 
line is drawn ; so blue ribbon 
and green ribbon and red 
ribbon and black ribbon 
mingled together without 
thought of caste. 

Men and women dress so 
much alike that, were it not for 
the top-knots and ribbons of the gentler sex, it would be hard 
to distinguish them. The upper garment is a " timiak " — a 
vest of birdskin — and over this is worn a kind of cotton jersey 
called " anorak." On the legs are worn breeches of sealskin 
or of reindeer skin. The women's breeches are shorter than 
the men's, but to make up for this they wear longer boots, 
called " kamics," which reach above the knee. The men's 




A JUVENILE. 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 



63 



kamics go but little above the ankle. There is also more 
ornamentation about the dress of the women. Their breeches 
are richly decorated in front with colored skin and white 
strips of dog or reindeer skin, and their long kamics are 
brightly colored, and the fronts of these are also decorated 
with stripes. Indeed, the costumes are very picturesque, and 
vastly more becoming to these people than the ugly garments 
that civilization has 
forced upon us. 

By the afternoon 
the Miranda looked 
like a floating mu- 
seum of natural his- 
tory. There were 
already a consider- 
able collection of 
stuffed birds on 
board, which had 
been prepared by 
the naturalists of 
the expedition; 
then a number of 
stuffed seals had 
been secured in St. 
Johns, and a variety 
of skins in Labra- 
dor. This collection 
was now augmented 
by all kinds of Es- 
kimo goods in the 
way of costumes, 

boots, fur slippers, ornaments, implements of the chase, and 
kayaks. Sixteen of these wonderful little boats now adorned 
the decks of the Miranda. The kayak is an ingenious evolution 




PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 




THE KAYAK. 



64 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

from the birch-bark canoe of the North American Indian, and 
is remarkably well adapted to the uses required of it. It is built 
of a frame of wood or bone, about twenty feet in length and 
two and a half in breadth. A covering of sealskin, perfectly 

w'a ter- 
[ — - — ■ proof, is 

tightly 
stretched 
over the 
frame, 
and in 
the mid- 
dle of the 

top there is a hole just large enough to permit the 
kayaker to get his body in and take his seat on the bottom 
of the boat with his legs stretched out in front of him. He 
wears a sealskin coat with a hood over his head, and the coat 
fits tightly around a rim round the aperture of the kayak, 
so that it is impossible for any water to get into the boat. A 
double paddle flaring at both ends is used, and the kayak is 
sent over the water with great swiftness. It is wonderful to 
see these little fellows go skimming over the water in their 
canoes. They can perform all kinds of antics with the 
ease of an acrobat, and are rather fond of showing off their 
skill. They can turn complete somersaults in the water, 
turning over and righting themselves with the greatest ease ; 
and another form of sport is to spurt the boat forward and to 
jump completely over the bow of another boat. In these 
little canoes they hunt the seal and walrus, and all game to be 
found above or under the water, and the boats are equipped 
with various ingenious implements of the chase. There are 
different kinds of fishing tackle, and a bird-spear of wood, 
pointed with a bone spear-head, and a circle of barbed bone 
lance-heads contrived so as to give a whirling motion to the 



THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



65 



spear and thus entangle the object at which it is thrown. 
Then there is a harpoon for seals, so arranged with a joint 
that after the spear-head has struck the animal it becomes 
detached from the shaft, the head being connected with a 
thong in the hands of the hunter. This thong is attached to 
a float consisting of a large bladder or an inflated and air-tight 




ESKIMOS AT PLAY. 

skin, which prevents the escape or sinking of the wounded 
animal. 

Indeed, the Eskimos show considerable inventive genius 
and skill in the construction of such articles as are needed in 
their grim struggle for existence in an environment unfavor- 
able to human life. They will hold their own with any 
aboriginal race on the face of the globe. Our civilization 



66 



THE LAST CETJISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



cannot help them in so far as their struggle for life in their 
environment is concerned. With their iron implements they 
can secure all necessary food ; the possession of fire-arms only 
leads to wanton destruction, and to the frightening away of 
the game that is most precious to them. Their clothes, cer- 
tainly, are better adapted to their climate than any we could 
make for them, and our most skilful boat-builders could not 
build them boats that would serve them as well as those they 
build for themselves. 

The importation of various European products has un- 
doubtedly worked harm among these now semi - civilized 
Eskimos. They have acquired a taste for tobacco, coffee, 
European fabrics, and various knickknacks. In exchange 
for these doubtful commodities they give their necessities of 

life — s e a 1 s k i n 
and blubber. 
Their boats and 
.... . . tents — absolute 

nee essities — go 
to rack and ruin, 
unless the neces- 
sary sealskin is 
forthcoming; 
and in winter 
without blub- 
ber they lack 
both light and 
warmth. They 
are an improvi- 
dent people, and 
will exchange during their brief summer, for luxuries to them, 
such as coffee and tobacco, things that are absolute necessities 
during their long winters, and so entail upon themselves the 
severest suffering — even starvation and death. They especially 




ESKIMO HOUSE. 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



67 



delight in coffee and tobacco, both of which are deleterious to 
them. The coffee they drink very strong, and they revel in 
the brief exhilaration that it affords them. But they are aware 
of its injurious effects, and young men who are destined to be 
good seal-catchers are 
allowed little or none. 
It is apt to produce a 
giddiness fatal to a kay- 
aker, who needs to have 
always a clear head. 
They both chew and 
smoke tobacco, and even 
the little children will run 
after you — girls as well as 
boys — begging for some 
of the precious weed. 
Spirits are not allowed by 
the Danish governors to 
be sold or exchanged 
among them ; but if by 
any means they can pro- 
cure any, they delight in 
the effects produced. 
Nansen, the Arctic ex- 
plorer, says, in speaking 
of these West Greenland 
Eskimos: " They are 
passionately fond of spirits, 
because they like the taste, as I was often told, but because 
it is so delightful to be drunk. And drunk they become 
at every possible opportunity. Somewhat incongruously, too, 
the women, as a rule, like their husbands best when they are 
in a state of intoxication." 

Living on the verge of existence, these people have need of all 




MOTHER AND BABE. 



men and women alike — not 



68 THE LAST CRUISE OP THE MIRANDA. 

their natural powers in their grim battle with an inimical and 
difficult environment. The few virtues of civilization that 
are with difficulty grafted upon them hardly compensate for 
the civilized vices, which are only too easily spread among 
them, and which so weaken them in their hard struggle for 
existence. 

Indeed, the Danish Government has recognized the fact 
that intercourse with civilized people is positively detrimental 
to the Eskimos, and so it prohibits civilized persons other 
than officials of the Government from remaining for any 
length of time among them. Professor Dyche, of our party, the 
well-known naturalist and hunter, wished to remain in Green- 
land all the winter, in order to increase his already great collec- 
tion of North American mammals; but he was informed that 
he could not remain without a permit from the Danish Govern- 
ment. Nothing daunted, he secured a permit after his return 
to this country, and started again for Greenland in a small 
schooner the following spring. At Holsteinborg he connect- 
ed with the Peary Relief Expedition, and returned with it, 
bringing with him nearly 4,000 specimens of Arctic birds, 
eggs, and animals. This is the largest collection that has 
ever been made in the Arctic regions, and as it was made 
within four months, great credit must be given Professor 
Dyche for his energy and brilliant work. 

As it was decided to remain at Sukkertoppen for a couple 
of days, a party under Professor Wright was organized to visit 
and explore a glacier about thirty miles away, up a fiord called 
Isortok. Toward evening we started off in two boats, a life- 
boat and a dory. In the lifeboat were Professors Wright and 
Jillson, Messrs. Dove, Kersting, Frederick Wright, Jr., 
Dunning, myself, and three Eskimos. In the dory were 
Messrs. Ladd, Rogers, Carpenter, Joyner, and one Eskimo. 
The Eskimos are good and untiring oarsmen. They row a 
slow stroke, but they put their muscle into it and make it 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 69 

tell. We took turns at the stroke oar, and occasionally 
spelled the Eskimos ; but not often, for they can row for hours 
on a stretch, and at the end seem as fresh as at the com- 
mencement. It was a beautiful row, amid strange and novel 
scenery. When we were well out at sea, the sun, now a fiery 
red ball, sank behind the great snow-capped mountains, tint- 
ing them and the clouds above with streaks of purple and 
gold — tints that the waters reflected. Then we entered nar- 
row and winding channels, and rowed in and out among a 




FIRST CAMP IN GREENLAND. 

number of small islands, mere rocks and moss, as desolate 
and forbidding as could well be imagined. There is a vast, 
brooding silence which hangs over the great wastes of Green- 
land ; it seems almost like an impertinence to break it, by 
even the dip of an oar, while the sound of laughter or of 
a human voice seems strangely and weirdly out of place. In 
the long Arctic twilight we rowed for many hours, until at 
length we entered the Isortok fiord, and near the mouth of 
this we pitched our camp for the night. It was our first 
camp in Greenland, and it was called Camp Outing. 



70 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRAXDA. 



"We were up betimes in the morning, and immediately 
after breakfast started for the glacier. The mainland was on 
our right, a continuous stretch of steep declivities and tower- 
ing mountains. As we turned a bend we could see afar off 

the white line 
of the glacier 
coming down 
from on high 
to the water's 
edge. It was 
hours before we 
reached it, how- 
ever, for it was 
many miles 
away. Once we 
met an oomiak, 
escorted by a 
couple of kay- 
aks. It was a 
party of Eski- 
mos, men and 
women, return- 
ing from fishing. We stopped and exchanged greetings, 
and also exchanged a couyjle of plugs of tobacco and a 
mouth-organ for some very fine salmon. The Eskimos went 
on their way rejoicing, and with a concourse of sweet sounds 
that were emitted vigorously from the mouth-organ. They 
probably thought us very simple people to part with so rare 
and wonderful an instrument for just a mess of fish. 

We reached the glacier finally at about noon, and it was 
not long before we were scaling up the steep mountain-sides, 
following the course of the glacier upward. It was like climb- 
ing the Alps, where " peaks on peaks arise," and none of us 
were able to reach the top — our time was too limited. I 




FRONT VIEW OF THE ISORTOK GLACIER. 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 71 

clambered with Mr. Ladd to an altitude of about twenty-five 
hundred feet, from whence we enjoyed a magnificent view of 
the numerous islands and fiords that lay below, of the main- 
land of Greenland, and of the great ocean beyond. Twice we 
crossed spurs of the glacier, and our feet sank deep in the soft 
snow; for the sun was so hot that we partially stripped ourselves 
during our ascent. The moss that for the most part covered 
the rocks was green and beautiful, and scattered about in 
rich profusion were great numbers of wild flowers gorgeous in 
their hues. The glaciers are the mothers of icebergs, which 
are not formed of ice frozen on the surface of the polar seas, 
but are pieces broken from the sea-ends of Arctic glaciers. 
The interior of Greenland is covered with a vast ice-cap, from 
which, down the valleys that extend between the central 
tableland to the Atlantic on the east and Baffin's Bay on the 
west, the ice glides down in frozen streams resistlessly to the 
sea. During the brief Arctic summer the action of the waves 
upon the debouching mouths of these great frozen rivers, 
aided by the unwonted warmth of the sun, detaches hundreds 
of thousands of tons of ice from the great glaciers, and thus ice- 
bergs are launched upon their career. This breaking off of 
icebergs from the parent glacier is called calving, owing 
to a fancied resemblance between the thunderous groans 
that accompany the process to the moaning of a cow in 
travail. 

By six o'clock we were gathered at the foot of the steep 
mountains, and after a hasty meal started at once for a thirty- 
mile pull back to the ship. 

After we were out of the fiord we encountered a heavy sea ; 
as the wind was dead against us, we had a hard pull until 
we got in the lee of some islands, and the day was breaking 
before we got back to the Miranda. 

A few hours later we started away from Sukkertoppen for 
Disco. Thoroughly tired out after our long pull, I was sleep- 



72 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIEAISTDA. 



ing heavily, but was awakened by the noise of the moving 
ship. From out my port - hole I could see quite a fleet of 
kayaks about us, which raced along, keeping pace with the 
ship. A high sea was running, and the little boats would 
sometimes be hidden from sight in the trough, but only to rise 







CREVASSE. 

again in an instant on the crest of a wave, down which they 
would shoot like a toboggan. Gradually, the kayaks dropped 
away one by one, and still feeling stiff and sore from the 
exertions of the preceding day, I lay down in my bunk again 
and dropped off in a half -doze. 

Suddenly there was an ominous and grating sound, and 



THE LAST CEUISE OE THE MIEANDA. 73 

we commenced to bump and jar in a most alarming manner. 
I jumped to my feet, but was immediately thrown down, and 
there was a great crash of breaking glass and china, and a 
terrible ripping sound, as if the vessel were being torn asunder. 
Men, furniture, and everything loose about the ship were 
thrown about in the wildest confusion. For a moment we 
seemed to be impaled upon the rocks, upon which we had 
rushed with such terrific force, with our engines at full speed. 
I dressed hastily and went on deck, where there was a scene 
of great confusion. We had struck upon a hidden reef, but 
with the high waves and the fast rate of speed at which 
we were going we had managed to run over it and get clear. 
Nobody could tell the extent of damage done, and so the 
worst was prepared for. We felt that we were liable to sink 
at any moment, and all knew that the rocks had gored our 
vessel in a terrible manner. Many were pushing about with 
life-preservers in their hands ; some were working at the boats 
to get them lowered, and others were bringing their most 
valuable possessions up from their cabins to the deck. I saw 
some strange sights : one man in his night-shirt, with a gun 
in one hand and a life-preserver in the other, for some of the 
passengers snatched at all sorts of odd things in the excite- 
ment of the moment ; another man had the ship's cat pressed 
against his bosom. The captain was cool and collected, and 
giving his orders with sharp decision. Our whistles were 
kept blowing continually, and our solitary cannon was fired 
off at rapid intervals as we turned back and made for Sukker- 
toppen with all possible speed. It took some time to find out 
whether we were leaking badly or not ; then it was discovered 
that the after water-ballast tank was full of water, but 
as our pumps appeared able to keep the leakage from 
gaining on us rapidly, there was apparently no immediate 
danger. Strange to say, we had struck upon the rocks at 
just about the same time in the morning that we had 



74 THE LAST CBUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

collided with the iceberg — that is, at twenty minutes after 
eight o'clock. 

At about half-past nine two little specks were discerned 
in the distance, alternately appearing and disappearing with 
the motion of the waves, and as we drew nearer these turned 
out to be two Eskimo pilots in kayaks. With great skill 
they ran alongside the ship, unhitched themselves from their 
gear, and came aboard. Then the governor's boat hove 
in sight ; for our signals of distress had been heard, and it 
bore the crack pilot of these waters. By eleven o'clock 
we were safely anchored in the harbor of Sukkertoppen, 
and the Miranda was tied with cables to ring-bolts in the 
rocks. 

Now a more careful examination as to the damage the 
rocks had done us was made — though, of course, it could 
not be fully ascertained. It was discovered, however, that 
whatever hole the rocks had made was just beneath the 
ballast-tank. This tank extended the whole width of the 
ship, and lay beneath the engine-room and stoke-hold. It 
was empty when the Miranda left Sukkertoppen ; but on her 
return after the accident was found to be full of water, 
and the pumps could make no impression upon it. It was 
fortunate for us that the force of the blows had been sus- 
tained by this portion of the ship, for had the rocks gored 
anywhere else we should have gone to the bottom at once. 
The top of the ballast-tank acted as a false bottom and kept 
us afloat ; but the top of this tank was thin and worn and 
coated with rust, liable to burst at any minute if sub- 
jected to a rough sea. Hence the captain at once decided 
that it was unsafe to venture forth in the Miranda, and 
the question of how we were to get home again stared us in 
the face. 

Here was a pretty how-de-do. We were stranded in 
Greenland. Provisions already were beginning to run short, 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIEANDA. 



75 



and the settlement could not afford us any, having a bare 
sufficiency for itself. There was no chance of getting away 
before spring, unless we secured some vessel cruising about 
in the vicinity. There was a bare chance that the Falcon 
might be intercepted on her return from Peary's headquar- 
ters ; but then the Falcon, being a small ship, could accom- 
modate only a few of us, at best, in addition to those she 
had on board. We learned from the governor that there 
were two or three American schooners at the fishing-banks of 
Holsteinborg, about a hundred and fifty miles away. Here, 
then, was our chance of getting back to civilization ; but how 
one of these schooners finally came to our rescue must be told 
in another chapter. 




CHAPTEE IV. 




When it was ascer- 
tained that we should 
have to remain at Suk- 
kertoppen until some 
vessel could he secured 
to rescue us Ave at once 
set ahout organizing par- 
ties for various expe- 
ditions. Of course, the 
most important thing was 
to secure one or more of 
the fishing-schooners reported to be off the fishing-hanks 
near Holsteinborg, about one hundred and forty miles away. 
A relief party was selected to go to Holsteinborg for this 
purpose under the command of Dr. Cook. The other 
members of the party were Messrs. Ladd, Kogers, Porter, 
Thompson, and Dunning. Captain Farrell gave Dr. Cook 
the following letter, to be given to the captain of any ship 
that he might find : 

" SUKKERTOPPEN, SOUTH GREENLAND, ) 

" August 10, 1894. [ 

" To Whom It May Concern : 

" Dear Sir : — The steamer Miranda, of Liverpool, England, from 
New York, with Dr. Frederick A. Cook's Arctic Expedition, struck 
a sunken rock seven miles southwest of this harbor. The ship is 
making water. Dr. Cook is going to you for immediate assistance, 
which please send, as we are in distress. 
" Yours truly, 

"Capt. Wm. J. Farrell, 

" Master of Steamship Miranda." 



Governor Bistrup placed an open sailboat at the disposal 



78 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

of the party, and sent a Dane and four picked Eskimos along 
with it. The expedition started on the evening of August 10. 
On that date two other parties started out — a party to explore 
the Similik glacier, composed of Professors Wright and 
Jillson, and Messrs. Dove, F. Wright, Jr., Kersting, Orth, 
Rumrill, and Brown ; and a party to go up the Isortok fiord 
to hunt and fish, composed of Dr. Cramer, Professor Freeman, 
Dr. Stebbins, and Messrs. Gay, Joyner, Garrison, and my- 
self. We took along with us Clark, one of the waiters, 
who proved himself an invaluable man, and five Eskimos as 
guides. We had two boats, which were pretty well loaded 
with our tents, provisions, baggage, guns, etc., to say nothing 
of ourselves and the guides. Our main object was to hunt 
deer. We went over the same course that I had previously 
been over in going to the glacier, except that we eventually 
passed the glacier and went about fifteen miles farther on. 

At about eight o'clock in the evening we reached an island 
near the mouth of Isortok fiord, and here we pitched our tents 
for the night. Clark cooked us an excellent meal, though we 
had to be sparing with our provisions, for on the Miranda we 
had already been put on short rations of two meals per diem. 
At the start the stocking of the ship had been put in the 
hands of a steward who was entirely new to the business. 
He was a recent Yale graduate and an excellent linguist, but, 
like the famous Miss Von Blurkey, 

" Both Latin and Greek he could fluently speak, 
But he did not know chicken from turkey." 

Had the worst come to the worst, he might perhaps have 
supplied us with enough Greek roots to have kept us all alive. 

The next day it was raining hard, and the Eskimos, whom 
we had to consult in matters of this kind, declared that we 
could not proceed. They were very positive weather prophets, 
and it must be admitted that they did understand their own 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



79 



climate pretty well. They looked at the sky, observed the 
coarse of the winds, shook their heads, and said " JSTo goot," 
" no goot," this phrase being the extent of their knowledge 




SOME YOUNG PROPHETS. 

of English, and then dove into a little cavern, in which they 
made their quarters. They had covered the mouth of this 
cavern with a sail. It was evidently a favorite resort for 
Eskimo outing parties, as it was full of fish-bones and refuse 
of all kinds, and had a most abominable odor ; this seemed to 
make them feel at home and happy. 

In the afternoon it lightened up a little, and Dr. Cramer 
and Professor Freeman decided to go back to the Miranda 
for some oilskins ; at our camp we were only about twelve 
miles from the ship. They coaxed a couple of Eskimos from 
their redolent cavern and started away in our smaller boat, 



80 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



with tne intention of coming back as soon as the storm was 
over. Later it began to rain in real dead earnest. That 
night was one of the most uncomfortable I have ever spent. 
Our tent had been injudiciously pitched on a side-hill, and so 
a small waterfall percolated through the mossy floor. Green- 
land moss makes an excellent bed when dry, but when it 
rains it quickly becomes like a wet sponge. We could make 
no fire, because there was nothing to burn except moss, 
which at the time was impossible, and the night was very 
v.g^, , cold. We had a 

little oil-stove, 
which we kept 
going until it 
burned out ; but 
this did not help 
matters much. 
The tent's roof 
was so wet that 
great drops fell 
on our upturned 
faces as we lay 
huddled together 
.in the middle of 
the camp, and I 
could push my 
boot down in the 
wet moss and 
hear the water 
gurgle. There 

CARL AND HIS TWO BEST GIRLS. wag not m u c h 

sleep that night for anybody. We fell to talking about 
comfortable waterproof beds in order to divert our minds. 
" Did you ever sleep in two empty flour barrels ? " remarked 
Clark, whose experiences seemed to have been varied. " No," 




THE LAST CEUTSE OF THE MIRANDA. 81 

said a voice; "I'll admit that I have been intoxicated, but 
I have never been that bad." Nevertheless, Clark went on to 
describe how good and dry a couch could be made of two bar- 
rels ; and the idea of any kind of a dry couch was comforting. 

The next day it ceased raining, 
except a fine drizzle ; but the Eski- 
mos still shook their heads and 
said "No goot." We shot some 
guillemots and sandpipers, which 
relieved the monotony of the day. 
In the afternoon the boat came 
back from the ship with the Eski- 
mos ; they brought a note from Dr. 
Cramer saying that all the weather 
prophets in Sukkertoppen predicted 
stormy weather for some days, and 
therefore lie and Professor Freeman 
would not return until the storm 
was over, as it was useless to proceed 
until it cleared. The boat was to -&*£-*»-■•■ 

, , ii -Mr- 7 J.-, > j.. THE TWO GOVERNORS. 

return to the Miranda that after- 
noon, so that any one could go back to the ship Avho desired to 
do so. I took young Carl Garrison with me and made for 
the Miranda. We needed more bread, and I wished to get a 
rubber blanket — a necessity for this kind of camping. It Avas 
about nine in the evening when we reached the shijD. The day 
was Sunday, and I went over to the settlement to pay my re- 
spects to the governors and their ladies, who dwelt amicably 
under one roof. Here I found several of our party, for the 
governors' house was a very popular rendezvous, and we passed 
a most agreeable evening. Assistant-Governor Baumann and 
his wife both spoke English very well, as did also Mrs. Bistrup, 
who acted as interpreter for her husband. A charming young 
lady, Miss Fausboll, half English, half Danish, was staying 




82 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



with Mrs. Bistrup, so altogether it was no wonder that the 
governors' house was extremely popular — one was sure of being 
most hospitably received and agreeably entertained. Mrs. 
Baumann sang exceedingly well, and all the ladies were well 
versed in English and American literature ; and I must not 
forget to mention that the governor possessed an excellent 
stock of wine and cigars. The talk turned upon the Eskimos 
and their traits. It seemed that there had been an epidemic 
raging in some of the small hamlets about, which the gov- 
ernor attributed to the people eating putrid whale-meat — a 
delicate morsel among them. Six hunters from Sukkertop- 




MRS. BAUMANN. 



BISTRUP CHILDREN. 



MRS. BISTRUP. 



MISS FAUSBOLL. 



pen had recently gone to an encampment where the epidemic 
was raging, and only two had returned ; the others were 
stricken down. When well the natives will not listen to ad- 
vice, and are very improvident ; but when sick they get very 
much frightened. Death terrifies them exceedingly, and they 



THE LAST CKTJISE OF THE MIRAXDA. 



83 



mourn deeply for a few days the loss of a relative or friend ; 
then suddenly they become merry again, and apparently think 
of their loss no more. 

In character the Eskimo is gay and careless ; if he has 
enough to eat he enjoys the present and gives no thought to 




ENTRANCE TO AN ESKIMO HUT. 

the future. He has a strongly developed sense of freedom 
and independence, which is natural, considering the nomad 
life of his ancestors. Another prominent trait is his honesty ; 
for theft among Eskimos is very rare, and is looked upon 
as exceedingly reprehensible. Murder is almost unknown, 
and they do not make war upon one another. They are 
very hospitable in disposition, and are good-natured and 
kind-hearted. Polygamy was common before the West Coast 
Eskimos became converts to the Christian faith, but now 
monogamy is the ideal, though not always closely adhered to 
in practice. Occasional cases of open polygamy are still to be 
met with, but these are very rare. Woman, though consid- 
ered inferior to man — a grading not entirely peculiar to the 



84 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

Eskimo — yet enjoys a good status, and is treated with consid- 
eration. The division of labor in a household is distinct. 
The man is the hunter and supporter of the family ; his work 
is performed almost exclusively upon the sea ; on land he 
loafs and invites his soul. The women take care of the 
booty, skin the seals, and cut them according to prescribed 
rules. They prepare and cook the food, dress the skins, 
make clothes, cover the boats ; they build and manage the 
houses, and even the large boats, or oomiaks. The houses are 
built of stone and turf, and generally contain but one room, 
entrance to which is effected through a long, narrow passage. 
In the single large room the entire family, or more often an 
aggregation of families, eat and sleep. There are generally 
several benches in this room, and upon these the inhabitants 
huddle together and sleep. Some of the houses have fireplaces, 
but mostly the room is heated by lamps burning blubber-oil. 
The cooking is done in a special fireplace outside, near the 
entry ; the fuel used is peat and a kind of guano provided 
by the gulls. The culinary method is very simple. Meat 
and fish are eaten both raw and cooked, and these edibles are 
highly prized when in a state of decomposition, which is sup- 
posed to give a spice to them. Seal and whale blubber are 
eaten raw, and because the Eskimos feel the want of vegetable 
food they are very fond of the contents of the paunch of the 
reindeer — a mixture of moss and such spare vegetation as 
the deer can find. A preserve made of this compound, 
mixed with crowberries and blubber, is another delicate mor- 
sel. " Matak," or the skin of whale or dolphin, taken off the 
animal with the upper layer of fat and eaten raw, is another 
Eskimo bon louche. 

The social system of the West Greenland Eskimos is a 
mixture of their own traditions and of modern European 
ways. There is a modified communism among them. They 
recognize private property in the kayak and its appurtenances, 



THE LAST CKTJISE OF THE MIRAXDA. 



85 



wearing apparel, and certain household effects. In land there 
is no property, and the spoils of the hunter do not helong en- 
tirely to him. In the main the whole settlement must, as far 
as possible, profit by the booty of a single hunter, so that 
families are not entirely dependent upon their own natural 
providers. They have laws defining the amount in regard tc 
each animal that the hunter can keep for himself and family, 
and how much he must distribute among his neighbors. If 
the whole pro- 
vision is not con- 
sumed, and there 
are no neighbors 
still in waut, the 
hunter may put by 
for his winter 
store. But if want 
and famine come, 
then this store is 
brought out to be 
shared in common. 
It is a thing un- 
known in Green- 
land for some to 
live in abundance 
while others are in 
suffering and want 
about them. The 
Golden Rule was 
written upon the 
hearts of these 
people and practised long before the advent of the missionary. 
Upon going back to the ship that evening I had an inter- 
esting talk with Professor Brewer, who was in charge in the 
absence of Dr. Cook. He had attended the Eskimo church 




DENMARK AND GREENLAND. 



8G 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



that day, and gave me sucli a graphic description of the 
services that, with his kind permission, I subsequently made 
a copy of his account as given in his journal, and reproduce 
it herewith. 

We went ashore at ten — a dozen of us. The rain had 
nearly ceased, and numerous rills coursed down the rocks 
opposite the hamlet in picturesque cascades. 




THE NARROW PATH. 

We had been told that the services began at ten ; it was 
after ten, but no one had assembled, and so we waited out- 
side. 

The scene was curiously picturesque. The tide was but 
half in, and the little cove by the church was yet dry. On 
the slopes were the huts or houses of the natives, and behind 
the rugged rocky hills rose, their tops obscure and illy defined 
in the thick air. Little cascades like white ribbons hung 
against the sides of the gray granite hills. A few patches of 



THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 87 

snow were near — not many nor large, but enough to show 
what Greenland dog-days are. 

With the second bell the people hurried from their houses, 
almost simultaneously, and the congregation was quickly as- 
sembled. We waited outside until all were in but a few strag- 
glers, then went in, and were shown front seats, probably 
seats of honor ; but I should have preferred to have been in 
the rear, where I could have seen the congregation better. 

The elderly people sat in the rear and the children in 
front : women on the left, with the girls in front ; men on 
the right, with most of the boys in front. There was very 
much coughing by the natives, especially when they came 
in ; less so later, although there was much all through the 
service. The people sat very close ; there were many chil- 
dren, and an almost continuous cooing of the babies. 

The little church is of stone, the walls over three feet thick, 
whitewashed without, sealed with boards within ; the boards 
painted a dull pale-blue on the sides, the ceiling white. 

A raised platform extended along one end ; on our right a 
plain desk, on the left a melodeon, or parlor organ ; a 
reading-stand was moved to the middle by the clergyman for 
reading. 

Back there was an altar with crucifix and two unlighted 
candles ; in front a railing and kneeling-step, as if for com- 
munion and confirmations. The preacher was a little old 
man with thin face and spectacles, in blouse and hood and 
sealskin boots. He was probably a Dane, but so bronzed that 
he was as dark as many of the natives. He had a kindly face 
and kindly, plaintive voice, his whole look and voice in keep- 
ing with the place. The service began at 10.45 and ended 
at about 11.50. 

After invocation and prayers, there was singing by the 
congregation, with the organ. There seemed to be less dif- 
ference between the male and female voices than with our 



88 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

race. The melody was excellent, and also the time ; the 
voices rich, but thin. The only dragging I heard was when 
some of our party took up the time and sang with them. 
The tunes were Lutheran, and had a familiar sound, as we 
have hymn-tunes based on them. 

The hymns were long ; the singing was prolonged and 



/ 



■ -. ~.—«- , i i urn mil— — < 
F« r . « . T .iii»m»iii iii m ii w ii 




I 



AT THE CHURCH DOOR. 

pleasing in the extreme. There was a charm about it that 
was to me simply delightful. After the singing came what I 
took to be a sermon, read, which lasted about twenty-five 
minutes ; then more singing and prayers — the singing of the 
second time impressing me even more than the first. The time 
was so well kept ; not a note of discord. Afterwards, short 
prayeis, during which the babies cooed again ; not one cried, 





. 



90 THE LAST CRUISE OE THE MIRANDA. 

during the service,, but during the last part one or two fretted 
with that peculiar fret which civilized mothers recognize as 
a sign of hunger. I suppose the same was the case here, for 
I noticed that in each case it stopped suddenly, and that baby 
was not heard from again. 

At the close the women went out first, the men remaining 
in their seats until all the women were out, and until we left. 
Indeed, I did not see them come out, as we went directly to 
our boat and returned to the ship. 

Of the many churches and congregations I have attended ser- 
vices in and with, never one more interesting than this. The 
church, the race, the quaint costumes, the service, entirely in 
the Eskimo tongue, the music, the simple service and devout 
attention, made a picture and left a profound impression. 

We were unable to make a start for the camp until 
August 14. It had rained hard and continually, and the sea 
was so high that the Eskimos would not venture forth, and 
the governor advised us strongly to trust to their instincts. 
In the afternoon of that day it stopped raining, and we finally 
induced the Eskimos to make a start, though they consented 
with evident unwillingness. We had hardly been out more 
than an hour when the rain began again to fall in torrents, 
and a high wind dead against us, and a high sea, made it the 
hardest kind of work to reach again the shelter of the islands 
in our little archipelago. Eor some time we seemed to be 
running a dead heat with a large rock not far to starboard ; 
for an hour or so we did not gain a foot, but just managed to 
hold our own against wind and tide. The poor Eskimos 
pulled like Trojans. I had hold of the helm, and had great 
difficulty in keeping the boat's head to the wind and waves. 
My hands, incased in woollen mittens, wringing wet, were so 
numb that I could hardly keep hold of the tiller. We had an 
uncomfortable night at camp again, but not nearly so bad as 



92 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

the former one, because the morning after that memorable 
night we had selected a better camping-ground upon a dead 
level, so that although our floor was undoubtedly moist, it did 
not this time resemble a swamp. 

When morning broke it was clear and beautiful, and we 
started at last for our happy hunting-grounds in most excel- 
lent spirits. The unveiling, as it were, of the magnificent 
scenery about us by the sun's dispersal of the heavy mists and 
fog was one of the grandest and most impressive sights I have 
ever witnessed. Most of the mountain ranges in the distance 
stood out distinctly in the clear sun, but the loftiest peaks 
were still veiled by white clouds of mist. The keen, clear 
air after the damp and fog was exhilarating in the extreme, 
and we broke out into the wildest shouts and bacchanalian 
songs, to the great amusement of our Eskimo friends. Just 
as we were starting and had our boats ready to push off, we 
suddenly heard a volley of shots, and a large oomiak hove in 
sight, containing a band of joyful Eskimos who were return- 
ing from a deer-hunt. They had captured twenty-four deer, 
so they indicated, and held up a number of deer-horns to prove 
their assertion. The body of one of their comrades who had 
died on the expedition was lying in the bottom of their boat, 
but this did not seem to interfere with their cheerfulness. 
Most of them landed and gazed at us with the greatest curi- 
osity and wonder, for they had been away in camp since 
before our arrival. We parted with many salutations and 
expressions of good will conveyed through gestures. 

We had a magnificent pull that day of about thirty miles 
up the Isortok fiord, blazing away now and then at a guille- 
mot or a puffin. We had a kayak in tow — a most useful boat 
in an excursion of this kind ; for whenever a bird fell one of 
the Eskimos would get in the kayak, go back and pick up 
the bird, and rejoin us without delaying our progress. After 
we had passed the glacier that I mentioned before, we rowed 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



93 



by some wonderful loomeries of seagulls. Steep, precipitous 
cliffs rose to a height of two or three thousand feet straight 
upward from the water, and these were thickly dotted with 
thousands upon thousands of seagulls, perched in crowds on 




UP ISORTOK FIORD. 

ledges everywhere. As the Eskimos are very fond of a sea- 
gull stew, and made signs that they would like to have some 
of the birds, we fired a few shots at some of the crowded 
ledges, and about half a dozen birds fell at every shot. They 
filled the bottom of our boat, and looked so downy white and 
pretty that it seemed almost a shame to sacrifice them, but 
our provisions were so scarce that this slaughter of the in- 
nocents was a necessity. The shots caused the birds to jump 
from their perches, and soon countless thousands of screaming 
gulls were circling all about us. It was impossible to make 
any adequate estimate of their numbers. 

We reached o..ir camping-grounds at about four o'clock in 
the afternoon, and pitched our two tents upon a mossy pla- 



94 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



teau on the banks of a narrow stream. All around us the 
great, gaunt mountains arose, and near by a huge glacier 
coursed downward to the sea. The next morning we were up 
by five o'clock, and each one took an Eskimo guide, and go- 
ing his own way, started to hunt the reindeer which are said 
to inhabit these regions. By nightfall the party were back 
in camp again, tired, hungry, disappointed; for not a deer 
had even been seen. We had ascended high mountains and 
descended into valleys, clambered over rocks and snow, and 
all sorts of precipitous places, but not even the sight of a 




HUNTING GROUNDS. 

deer had rewarded our efforts. Here and there we found 
footprints, but this was all. I regret to have to record this 
fact ; but as a truthful historian I am compelled to admit 
that, though we wandered over this country for days, we saw 
no deer at all. Either a bird had carried the news to the deer 
that we were coming and they had wisely moved inland, or — 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



95 



a somewhat more probable supposition — the Eskimos did not 
want us to get any deer, and had brought us to an unlikely 
spot — a ground that had recently been hunted over. The 
reindeer are very necessary to the Eskimos, not only for food, 
but also for their skins, which are utilized for various pur- 
poses ; small wonder, then, if they are not anxious to assist 




NO DEER 



SIGHT. 



strangers in capturing these valuable animals. Had we had 
time to strike our tents and move inland, I have no doubt 
we should have found fine sport. Clark, indeed, reported that 
he had seen deer on several occasions about tbe camp when 
the rest of us "were far away ; but Clark was not fond of soli- 
tude, and was apt to solace himself by fishing out of the 



96 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

tent some hidden bottle ; and after he had indulged in a soli- 
tary seance he was apt to see any animal — not excepting 
snakes. But though we got no deer, we caught quantities of 
salmon and salmon -trout in the stream near us, and also 
lake -trout, in the clear fresh -water lakes, which were all 
about us. Our stream was simply teeming with fish. I 
know that fish stories are generally taken with a grain of salt, 
and often with more liberal quantities ; but as I have been 
truthful about the deer, though in so far-away a region it 
would be easy to draw upon the imagination without de- 
tection, my word shoul 1 be relied upon as regards the amount 
of fish we caught. This is a fact : during an afternoon's 
sport one of our party caught one hundred and sixty-two 
salmon - trout, and another within an hour's time captured 
forty-five. The Eskimos had a little set-net with which they 
caught some beautiful large salmon, and they also gaffed the 
fish with great skill. We simply revelled in salmon and 
trout. I know of nothing finer than a salmon just out of 
the water, or a large salmon-trout baked upon a flat rock. 
Any one who has indulged in this luxury out in the open after 
a day's sport can bear me out in the assertion. Up in the 
highlands we found those delicious birds, the ptarmigan, and 
on the water we shot guillemots, murres, and puffin, so that 
we managed to live well in spite of our lack of venison. 

On August 19 we bid a regretful farewell to our camp, for 
it was time for us to get back to the Miranda. Dr. Cook 
was expected back within ten days from the time of starting, 
and we did not want to take any chances of causing a delay. 
We carried back to our comrades on the ship two hundred 
pounds of salmon. There was one thing we were glad to 
leave behind us, and that was an old familiar pest — the mos- 
quito. I have come to think that Greenland is the father- 
land of the mosquito ; for over its wastes it breeds and multi- 
plies in a way that gives evidence of a most conducive environ- 



98 THE LAST CHOSE OF THE MIRANDA. 

ment. We made face-masks of mosquito-netting and wire to 
wear when out hunting, otherwise the torture would have 
been unbearable. All day long we rowed, spelling each other 
at intervals, and reached the ship at about ten in the even- 
ing. Of course, it was still light at that time. We had no 
night as we understand it, only a few hours of dusk or twi- 
light. We were about forty miles from the Arctic Circle. 
Across that the Arctic summer is one long day. 

" A polar day, which will not see 
A sunset till its summer's gone — 
Its sleepless summer of long light, 
The snow-clad offspring of the sun." 

The glacier party had returned a few hours earlier, but Dr. 
Cook and his associates had not yet put in an appearance. 
Professor Wright and his party were much pleased with the 
results of their trip, although they, as we, had had a pretty 
rough time of it with rain and wind storms. They had been 
enabled during the few fine days to explore and measure sev- 
eral glaciers pretty thoroughly, however, and Mr. Kersting 
had secured a number of photographs — pictures taken with 
great labor and pains, and destined soon to be carried down 
into the sea. From notes supplied by him I am enabled to 
give a brief account of this expedition. The party started Au- 
gust 9 in a whale-boat, loaned by Governor Bistrup, with two 
dories from the Miranda as convoys. They took with them 
five Eskimos as guides and to help with the rowing. At sun- 
set they reached Ikamuit, a small Eskimo settlement contain- 
ing four houses. The year before the place had been almost 
entirely swept away by a great body of water that rushed 
down from a neighboring mountain and swept away the little 
igloos and drowned several inhabitants. Ikamuit signifies 
"place without shelter." The party found it worthy of its 
name, for they were caught in the same storm that overtook 



o 

z 

o 

<£. & 



■( 




100 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

our hunting-party, and had much the same kind of an ex- 
perience. For six days they were pinned to their camp by the 
fury of the elements, and only short excursions were taken in 
the immediate neighborhood. On Sunday, the third day out, 
the storm abated somewhat, and in rambling in the vicinity 
of the camp Mr. Kersting came across an Eskimo girl en- 
gaged in pulling the skins from a number of ducks that had 
evidently been killed several days, for the flesh was black and 
covered with maggots. She scraped these from one of the 
ducks, and offered it to the stranger with true Eskimo hos- 
pitality. But he refused the generous offer : so she laugh- 
ingly took her ducks where they would be appreciated, and 
soon the entire little settlement fell upon the birds and de- 
voured them, without either cooking or cleaning. De gusti- 
bus non est disputandum. 

In front of the camp ran a little brook, and here the party 
performed their ablutions, and here the Eskimos would gather 
to watch them go through these strange and novel perform- 
ances. The process of brushing the teeth filled them with 
unbounded wonder, but when one of the party removed a set 
of artificial teeth and washed them there was almost a terrified 
stampede, and he became an object of superstitious awe and 
veneration. Surely a man who could remove his teeth could 
remove mountains. 

On Sunday morning a simple service was held by the 
natives in one of the huts ; it consisted mostly of the singing 
of hymns. In the afternoon Professor Wright held service in 
the tent, and all the Eskimos attended. 

On the following day members of the party tried their 
hands at fishing, but did not have much success until a couple 
of little Eskimo girls came along and set the pace for them. 
They carried a short stick with a sealskin line attached about 
five feet in length. They threw these lines by the rocks and 
pulled them up and down, and soon had a mess of cod. The 



THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 101 

Eskimo method was adopted with success by the stranger- 
fishermen. Quantities of black mussels were found, which 
were converted into an excellent soup. 

On the 14th a dory containing Messrs. Dove and Rum rill 
started for the Miranda. Mr. Dove was wearied of Green- 
land camp-life, and Mr. Rumrill returned to get some oil and 
other necessary articles. On Thursday the weather cleared, 
tents were struck, and all hands took to the boats and pulled 
away to make the Similik glacier. On several occasions 
the camp had been left entirely in charge of the Eskimos, 
and though it contained for them great luxuries, such as 
coffee and tobacco, nothing was touched or taken. On 
Friday the party clambered over the great glacier and made 
about five miles toward the inland ice, crossing broad cre- 
vasses, and carefully avoiding many pitfalls, cracks, and soft 
snow. 

On Saturday the party started for Sukkertoppen, but had 
not proceeded far before they were overtaken by a severe storm 
and were forced to take shelter upon an island. They managed 
to get up a tent, but so strong was the wind that members of 
the party spelled one another all night long in holding the tent 
down and keeping it and their belongings from being blown 
into the water. On the next day the party succeeded in get- 
ting back to the Miranda, tired out with their fierce struggle 
with the elements, but happy over the ultimate success of 
their trip. The results of this trip, as well as other observa- 
tions on glacial phenomena, are given by Professor Wright in 
the able article which he has contributed to this book. 

At about nine o'clock on the morning of August 20 a 
great cheer arose, and on going on deck I saw a small schooner 
riding in to our harbor, surrounded by great numbers of 
kayaks. It was not long before Dr. Cook and his party came 
rowing over to the Miranda, and they were received with 
great enthusiasm, as can well be imagined. The schooner 



102 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

they had secured was the Rig el, commanded by Captain 
George W. Dixon, of Gloucester, Mass. The history of the 
expedition after the schooner is a very interesting one, and I 
have abridged it from the diary of one of the members, Mr. 
Eussell W. Porter, who kindly placed his notes at my dis- 
posal. For a fuller description of this trip I can refer my 
readers to Mr. Porter's own narrative. 

The expedition started, as I mentioned before, at about 
six o'clock on the evening of August 10. Early the next 
morning they arrived at Kangarmuit, otherwise known as Old 
Sukkertoppen. Here they remained for a day and a half on 
account of bad weather, being allowed by the governor to 
take up their quarters in the loft of the church, as there was 
no other building large enough to accommodate the party. 
On Sunday morning, the 12th, they started away, and sailed 
mtil eleven that night, when they camped upon a small 
island. They broke camp the following morning, but as there 
was a heavy wind and rain storm, they found that they could 
make no progress, and were obliged to go into camp again. 
For two days the storm continued, and they had great diffi- 
culty in keeping the tent from blowing away. The party 
finally got away early on August 15, and sailed and rowed for 
sixteen hours, arriving at Holsteinborg at eight o'clock in the 
evening. On the way they stopped at Itirdlek, a small settle- 
ment, to inquire about the schooners. No schooners were 
there, but some were reported at Nepisat, not far away ; they 
went to JSTepisat, but found no ships, and so went on to Hol- 
steinborg. As they neared this place they ran up the Ameri- 
can flag and fired a salute with rifles ; a Danish flag was im- 
mediately run up on shore, and an answering salute fired from 
the governor's cannon. They were hospitably entertained by 
Governor Miiller, of Holsteinborg, who made the party take 
their meals at his house, and gave them a room in one of 
iiis outhouses. They found out that the schooner Rigel, of 



104 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRAJSTDA. 

Gloucester, Mass., had left Holsteinborg on the previous day 
for the Banks, and that there were five other schooners out- 
side. Three of the party were detailed to go to the top of a 
neighboring mountain, eighteen hundred feet high, to look 
for a schooner with a spy-glass ; but they had hardly started 
before a schooner was seen bearing west by south. Mr. 
Rogers went back to inform Dr. Cook, and an Eskimo in 
a kayak was sent over to the schooner. Two of the party 
continued the ascent of the mountain, and plunged into a 
driving snow-storm about four hundred feet from the summit. 
In the evening they returned to the governor's house, where 
the party was assembled, and shortly afterward news was 
brought that a dory had been sighted coming up the harbor. 
The dory proved to contain Captain Dixon, of the schooner 
Rigel. The schooner had been five months out from Glouces- 
ter, and had recently come from fishing on the Iceland coast. 

The day before several couriers had been despatched in 
kayaks to scour the surrounding waters for any of the reported 
schooners, and they bore letters from Dr. Cook calling for 
assistance. One of these couriers had boarded the Rigel near 
Itirdlet, and so Captain Dixon had come over post-haste to 
Holsteinborg, arriving at about ten o'clock in the evening. 
In talking over the matter with Dr. Cook Captain Dixon 
said that before he could go to the rescue of the people on 
board the Miranda he would have to consult with his crew, 
as they were co-operative sharers in the profits of the fishing 
trip, which would have to be abandoned if the rescue were 
made at once. He said that his trip would be over about 
September 5, and that he could then call at Sukkertoppen ; 
but if his men were willing to give up the trip and start for 
Sukkertoppen at once he would bring his schooner up in the 
offing in the morning and fly his flag as a signal. He then 
left to go back to the Rigel. 

The following morning a man was detailed to mount the 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRAXDA. 



105 



hill and look for a signal from the schooner. She was sighted 
flying her flag and making north. The party collected their 
haggage, and after bidding farewell to the hospitable gov- 
ernor they boarded the Rigel, which was lying about a mile 
from the harbor, and set sail for Sukkertoppen. Captain 
Dixon was obliged to exercise much caution, for the waters 





THE COMING OF THE RIGEL. 

were strange to him, and three dangers threatened him — fog, 
ice, and sunken rocks. As it was, the schooner struck a 
sunken rock at the outset of the journey, but after bumping 
several times she cleared it without serious damage. 

On the morning of August 20, when the schooner had 
been sighted from the Miranda, Captain Farrell rowed out 
to meet her, and it was not long before the two captains^had 



106 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

come to terms. It was agreed between them that $4,000 
should be paid to Captain Dixon as a recompense for breaking 
in upon his fishing trip, and for carrying the passengers to 
some port where they could get transportation home. It was 
also agreed that the schooner should accompany the Miranda 
to some convenient port of repair, and that the crew of the 
schooner should hold themselves in readiness to rescue the 
officers and crew of the Miranda in case the steamer should 
founder or have to be abandoned — the recompense for this to 
be settled by arbitration, or by mutual agreement between the 
agents of the schooner and the underwriters of the Miranda. 
At first glance it might seem to the reader that $4,000 for 
taking the party to a port of safety was rather high ; but a few 
words suffice to show that it was only a just and moderate 
charge. In the first place, it must be remembered that our 
party, with the Miranda's crew, numbered seventy-five men 
all told, making the price per head a trifle over fifty-three 
dollars. Then Captain Dixon was obliged to give up finish- 
ing out his fishing trip, and a trip into these regions means 
considerable expense and great hardships. An average catch 
of halibut would net $6,000. Again, half the sum netted by 
a fishing schooner of the kind goes to the owners of the 
vessel ; the remainder is divided between the captain and 
crew. Indeed, Captain Dixon generously offered to take the 
entire party homeward for nothing if they would consent to 
remain in Greenland two or three weeks longer and allow him 
to finish his fishing. But the inadequate stock of provisions 
made it dangerous to remain even for this short period of 
time. In truth, the expedition was at the mercy of this big- 
hearted captain ; he could have demanded any sum that he 
pleased. As it turned out, the contract made proved to be 
in no way binding upon the Miranda's owners. They felt 
themselves in nowise bound to pay the $4,000, and did not 
do so. They held that in losing the ship, notwithstanding 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRAXDA. 107 

its insurance, they had themselves suffered considerable loss. 
The law does not hold a company responsible for a contract 
made with a captain under these circumstances. Had the 
Miranda been brought into port, then Captain Dixon would 
have had a legally recognized claim. As it was, he could not 
recover even for the losses he had sustained in making room 
for the passengers and crew of the steamer. At no time, 
before or after the repudiation of the contract, has Captain 
Dixon made any claim upon the passengers of the Miranda 
for the great service he had rendered them. Of their own 
volition they started a subscription, to which the Miranda's 
company contributed two hundred aud fifty dollars, and 
have forwarded him something over one -half the sum the 
contract called for. This little volume has been issued in the 
hope that the profits arising from its sale may at least amount 
to a fair portion of the balance morally, if not legally, due to 
the captain and crew of the Rig el. 

After the agreements between the two captains had been 
drawn up and witnessed by the first officer of the Miranda 
and the two Governors of Sukkertoppen, preparations were 
immediately made for the reception of the Miranda's passen- 
gers on board the Rig el. There were four bunks in the after- 
cabin, which were reserved for the older members of our party. 
A place was cleared in the after-hold, used mainly as a store- 
room for salt ; fifty hundredweight of salt was taken out, with 
some lumber, and presented to the Eskimos, and 1800 worth 
of fishing tackle was thrown away, in order to make room for 
our party. Thus a space was cleared about twenty feet long, 
fifteen wide, and four feet high ; a door communicated with 
the cabin, and in this space sleeping room for thirty passen- 
gers was divided off. The crew of the Rig el willingly turned 
out of their quarters to make room for the Miranda's passen- 
gers, and all crowded into the forecastle. 

The evening of August 20 was our last at Sukkertoppen. 



108 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



Most of our party went over to pay their final respects to the 
kind governors and their ladies, for it was. arranged that we 
should start on the following morning. As I came out of 
the governors' house I found an Eskimo dance in progress 
on a little square near the house. Two or three Eskimo girls 
at once seized me and laughingly pulled me into the dance — a 
v^ery lively and energetic one — and so I jigged away for an 




COMING TO SAY GOOD-BYE. 



hour or more, to my own amusement and that of the Eskimos. 
And how they do dance, these little people ! With their whole 
bodies and with their whole souls. An Eskimo dance is a 
scene of life, of rapid movement, of intense enjoyment. No 
sad funereal faces, or bodies somberly clad in black, as if in deep 
mourning for their folly or their sins, and moving dejected- 
ly and regretfully, among the jovial Eskimo men. And the 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRAXDA. 109 

women, their lithe bodies clad in garments that give freedom 
to every movement ; they do not appear to think that there is 
any credit in being jolly at a dance. How they fling and swing 
themselves about, dancing in perfect time — dancing all over, 
from the tip-top of their waving, nodding top-knots to the 
tips of their energetic little toes ! I should like to witness 
with what wonder, with what laughter, these little ladies would 




A FAREWELL GLIMPSE. 

look upon the sad- eyed swains at one of our fashionable balls. 
They make the best of their surroundings, despite their hard 
environment. Verily, verily, an Eskimo missionary might 
teach us a few things. 

The Eskimo dances are not national. European and 
American whalers have been the dancing-masters, and so the 
Eskimos can waltz and polka, but the reel they love best, and 



110 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 




a variety of reels they have made their own, and these have 
assumed a certain national character. 

It was cold and misty the next morning, and a fine drizzle 
was falling. Canvas had been spread over the salt in the 

after-hold of the schooner, 
and over this we put our 
mattresses side by side. 
Each man had just his 
mattress room, — that was 
all, — and every bit of 
space was taken up. On 
account of the limited 
space, we could bring only 
a few necessaries on the 
schooner. The little vessel 
was but ninety-nine feet 
long, and of one hundred 
and seven tons burden. 
To insure against sepa- 
ration in case of fog or in the darkness, it was decided that 
the steamer should tow the schooner, so the two were con- 
nected with a cable line, and a system of signals was 
arranged between the two captains, in order that they could 
communicate in case of need or accident. It was hoped that 
the Miranda could make the run to St. Johns with safety, 
or at any rate, that she could be run in somewhere on the 
Labrador coast. At about ten o'clock we got under way. 
The American flag was run up on our mainmast, and was 
greeted with loud cheers. The Miranda being an English 
ship, and sailing under a British charter, of course, flew 
English colors, so now for the first time we were sailing under 
the Stars and Stripes. We all removed our hats, though a 
drizzling rain was falling, and sang in a swelling chorus the 
"Star- Spangled Banner, " and "My Country, 'tis of Thee." 



GOVERNORS' HOUSE. 



THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRAXDA. 



Ill 



It was an impressive scene, and one that will always live in 
my memory. Near us, in a large boat, rowed by Eskimos, 
were the governors and their ladies, who had come to bid us 
a final farewell. We gave them cheer upon cheer, which they 
returned, and in which the Eskimo rowers joined. On shore 
a solid phalanx of Eskimos was drawn up, rapidly firing part- 
ing salutes, and all about us the kayaks darted, and the 
little kayakers waved us a last good-by. Gradually the Mi- 
randa towed us out of the harbor into the open sea, and 
the mists fell about us, and the shores of Greenland were hid- 
den from our sight. And another mist, too, gathered in the 
eyes of many a member of the expedition, straining his vision 
to catch a last glimpse of a place that had become endeared to 
us all by many acts of courtesy and kindness. There is a deep 
pathos in a farewell when human beings whom chance has 
brought together in the close companionship of strange places 
look upon one another's faces for the last time, knowing that 
in life they shall not meet again. Farewell — a long farewell to 
the warm hearts in that stout little Danish house perched on the 
cold and barren rocks of Greenland ; and farewell, too, to the 
little people who gather near by and make the night merry 
with dancing and laughter ! Somewhere — somewhere, when 
the mists have all rolled away, may we meet again ! 




CHAPTER V. 




Th e r ain 
which began to 
fall on the 
morning we 
started from 
Sukkertoppen 
continued to 
fall for four 

days with scarcely an intermission. There was no shelter to 
seek on deck of any kind ; it was cold, wet, and disagreeable, 
while below the air was so close and foul that it made most of 
us seasick, so that we alternated between the devil and the deep 
sea with a vengeance. A generous mixture of the odor of fish 
and bilge-water in an overcrowded apartment in the after- 
hold combined to make the most powerful and, I think, the 
most disagreeable smell that I have ever been subjected to. 
To add to our misery, the hatchway, which supplied light 
and air to the after-hold, had often to be closed on account of 
the stormy weather, as for a great part of the time the waves 
were washing all over our decks. In the night the extremely 
close quarters, the foul odor, and the groans, to say nothing 
of other noises, of the seasick ones, made us feel as if we had 
descended into a veritable miniature inferno. But perpetual 
adaptation to environment, says Spencer, is the law of life; 
and, in accordance with this kindly law, we gradually grew 
accustomed to our new surroundings, and our sense of smell 
grew dull even to bilge- water. 

Owing to the size of the schooner's cooking-stove, it was 
impossible to prepare for so large a crowd more than two 
meals a day, and these meals were necessarily limited to a 




CAPTAIN GEORGE W, DIXON. 



114 



THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



few articles of consumption. Salt beef, fish chowder, halibut 
fins, potatoes, oatmeal, coffee, tea, and bread were the staple 
articles of food and drink. We did not enjoy all these deli- 
cacies at any one time, of course, for the cook varied them 
with excellent judgment. The cook, too, had a fine and epi- 
curean imagination, which helped us out not a little. For if, 
like the Marchioness with her orange-peel and water, we all 
made believe a good deal, and tried to live up to the cook's 
romantic descriptions of his viands, we fared very sumptu- 
ously indeed. As he ladled out the solitary viand or two upon 
the tin plates which served as an omnium gatherum and 
passed them to a waiter standing at the entrance to his little 
cock-pit, his cheery voice would ring out : " Pass round 

the roast goose, 
George; apple 
sass, and a little 
paddy de f oi grass, 
turkey, or chicken 
fricasee, if the 
gents prefer it ! 
Fill the glasses 
with claret, then 
pass round the 
champagne — live- 
ly, George — live- 
ly! "etc. While 
to offset this ro- 
manticism the 
realistic George 
would shout in 
stentorian tones : " One on the salt horse, without harness ! 
One on halibut fin ! " However, I noted comrades who were 
epicures on shore picking at halibut fin with rare relish, for 
there is no sauce like hunger ; and then, as the Marchioness 




THE GOOD SHIP RIGEL 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



115 



said, if you only make believe enough, orange-peel and water 
is very nice indeed. 

As only about fifteen of us could get into the little fore- 
castle, which served both as a general dining-room and a 
sleeping-room for the Rigel's crew, we managed to keep the 
cook pretty busy ; in fact, the meals lasted the greater part 
of the day. The forecastle was small, but it afforded a great 
variety of motion ; for here the pitching and tossing of the 
little vessel could be felt in full force. It was like being 
tossed in a blanket almost, for at times a powerful jerk would 
come from the Miranda along the tow-line that would seem 
to" send the little schooner flying in the air. But it was not 
long before the steamer and the schooner were obliged to part 
company — a thing which, judging from the strain on the 
cable, they were perpetually endeavoring to accomplish. 

On the second clay out — August 23 — we encountered very 
heavy swells, and we could see that the Miranda Avas rolling 
badly. How long the top of the ballast-tank could stand the 
strain of so heavy a sea was a question that was answered 
sooner than we anticipated. As darkness fell about us a red 
light gleamed from the steamer's deck, indicating that trouble 
was anticipated. At a few minutes after midnight three 
shrieks came from the steamer's whistle in rapid succession. 
This was the signal that she was in sore distress, and the red 
light was hung over the stern as a warning for Captain Dixon 
to be in readiness. The speed of the Miranda was slackened, 
and as the two vessels came together Captain Farrell hailed 
Captain Dixon to be ready, as the steamer was in a sinking 
condition. Immediately Captain Dixon hailed back to him 
to cut the cable and drop off in the boats, and that the Rigel 
would pick them up. But Captain Farrell answered back 
that he would try to stand by the ship until daylight. Cap- 
tain Dixon hailed again, begging Captain Farrell to take no 
risks. The gains that salvage would bring him appeared not 



116 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



to influence him in the least ; his only thought was for the 
safety of his fellow-men upon the doomed ship, and his great 
human heart heat in anxiety for them. 

Shortly after eleven o'clock at night a fire had broken out 





THE SECOND DAY OUT. 

in the second cabin of the Miranda, and this had hardly been 
extinguished when the chief engineer, Mr. Dibbs, reported 
that the top of the water-ballast tank had given way under the 
immense strain caused by the high sea. At the sight of water 
rushing in the firemen stampeded to the deck in a panic, and 
attempted to launch one of the lifeboats, but only succeeded 
in smashing it against the iron sides of the ship. Captain 
Farrell promptly restored order, and the firemen were sent 
below again. The leaks in the tank were partially stopped 
by means of pillows and mattresses stuffed into the holes; 
but this was only a temporary expedient : the ship was 



THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 117 

in a sinking condition, and the signals of distress were 
given. 

From the deck of the Rigel we could dimly see prepara- 
tions going on aboard the Miranda for leaving the ship, 
though sometimes we lost sight of her altogether in the hol- 
low of the sea. At the capstan of the schooner stood Captain 
Dixon with a sharp axe in hand, ready to cut the hawser 
that connected us with the Miranda should she suddenly 
founder and sink. It was an anxious time for us on the 
schooner, straining our eyes in the darkness upon the flaring 
red light of the Miranda, ever appearing and disappearing as 
the ship rolled in the heavy sea. 

As the gray dawn began to streak the sky the first boat- 
load of the Miranda's crew came rowing over to the Hi gel. 
This contained the steward and several of his men, and as 
soon as they were safe on board the boat was sent over to the 
Miranda again, and three dories from the Rigel were also 
launched. It was a sight long to be remembered, that of the 
little boats plying between the disabled steamer and the 
schooner, and bringing over the crew in sections, and such 
necessary baggage as could hastily be got together. The 
boats rose and fell on the swelling sea, and were often lost to 
view, only to rise again on the crest of some huge wave. 
Wonderfully well managed were these little boats by some of 
the gallant, stout-hearted sailors of the Rigel. ISTo thought 
of the prize now slipping away from their grasp appeared 
to influence them, but with hearty good-will they bent 
to the oars, and carried their burdens of human freight, 
while all unnecessary baggage they cast into the sea. For 
space was very valuable upon the little schooner Rigel. 
Shortly after five o'clock in the morning the last boat-load, 
carrying Captain Farrell among others, arrived safely on 
board the schooner. The hawser had been cast off from the 
Miranda, and she was abandoned to her fate. Her lights 



THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 119 

were still burning, her rudder had been lashed to one side, 
and so, with steam on and her propeller going, she slowly 
steamed away ; and the fog fell around her like a curtain, 
and she was lost to sight for ever. 

She might keep afloat for a few hours, but, according to 
the chief engineer, she was a doomed ship. Soon such tem- 
porary repairs to stop leakage as had been made would give 
way and the waters would close above her, and she with her 
precious freight would join the mighty procession of wrecks 
far down in the deep waters. The Miranda was abandoned 
in latitude 61° 15', longitude 58° 40', 296 miles from Sukker- 
toppen. 

With the ship the members of the expedition lost all their 
belongings except the few necessaries they had brought with 
them on the schooner. Valuable ethnological and botanical 
collections (over five thousand Arctic plants had been gath- 
ered), a great number of guns and scientific instruments, the 
largest collection ever made of photographs of Arctic scenes 
and people, and quantities of stuffed birds, seals, skins, etc., all 
went down with the ill-fated ship. However, the saving of 
our own skins was matter for rejoicing, and the losses were 
cheerfully accepted by all hands. If the Lord loves a cheer- 
ful giver, I hope a cheerful loser may also find favor. There 
arose none of those bemoanings over spilled milk that are 
often harder to put up with than the losses themselves. 

There were now ninety-three souls on board our little 
schooner. No time could be lost, and soon Captain Dixon 
was sailing with all possible speed for Hamilton Inlet, on 
the coast of Labrador, about 380 miles away. But fogs, 
head-winds, high seas, and icebergs combined to render the 
journey dangerous and slow as well as uncertain. It was 
decided to put in at the first feasible point on the Labrador 
coast, then pass through the straits of Belle Isle, and 
finally to land at Sydney, Cape Breton. 



120 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 

Provisions were getting very low, and it was discovered 
that a portion of the crew of the Miranda who had been 
lodged in the provision-hold had been systematically stealing 
everything edible that they could lay their hands upon, and as 
a consequence the larder stood in sad need of replenishment. 

On August 25 the sun broke from the heavy clouds ; 
we bathed in the sunshine for the first time since our start, 
and the spirits of all rose accordingly. For two evenings 
we had magnificent exhibitions of northern lights, and as the 
clearer atmosphere revealed to us numbers of white gleam- 
ing icebergs, we realized the dangers we had been passing 
through. On the morning of the 28th we sighted the coast 
of Labrador, and as the weather was threatening it was 
decided to make a harbor for the night. In the evening we 
entered Punch Bowl harbor, about sixty miles south of 
Eigolette. Punch Bowl is a little fishing settlement much 
resembling Cape Charles. Two fishing schooners were lying 
at anchor in this harbor : their occupants, as well as the 
natives of the place, gazed with wonder at the swarms of 
men crowding the decks of our little vessel ; and the 
banners of the Cleveland Yacht Club and of Harvard and 
Yale, which we were flying, seemed also to puzzle them not a 
little. When, however, they learned that we were a ship- 
wrecked party, they did not seem to evince much wonder or 
curiosity. Shipwrecks are a matter of such common occur- 
rence in these regions. The most important character at 
Punch Bowl was a certain hard-featured old man, who was 
called King Bryan. He controlled the fisheries and owned 
the only store, so that he was monarch indeed of all he 
surveyed, and ruled the place — so we were given to under- 
stand — with a rod of iron. We laid in a supply of fresh 
codfish here, and left behind us five of the Miranda's 
crew, who were to wait for a mail steamer to take them 
to St. Johns, Newfoundland. They were our chief officer, 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



121 



Mr. Manuel ; ice-pilot Duniphy, steward Farrell, and two 
firemen. 

In the morning, as there was no breeze, three of the 
dories, manned by members of the 
Rigel crew, were sent ahead, and towed 
ns out from the sheltering harbor un- 
til we caught a breeze from the open 
sea. Agaiu the dense fog fell about 
us, through which, every now and 
then, the huge dim forms of icebergs 
could be discerned. That night of 
August 30 was an anxious one for all, 
but especial- 
ly so for Cap- 
tain Dixon. 
In the heavy 
fog Ave some 
times passed 
so close to 
icebergs that 
we almost 
grazed them, 
and occasion 
ally we could 
hear sounds 
like a can- 
nonade as 
great pieces 
of ice broke 
from the 
bergs and 
fell into the 

water. The next morning the fog scaled, and by noon we 
had put into Henley harbor, within the straits of Belle Isle, 




TOWING THE RIGEL. 



122 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



to wait for clearer skies and a more favorable wind ; also 
to procure a further supply of provisions. In appearance, 
Henley harbor was much like the other Labrador settlements 
at which we had stopped, save for an enormous rock which 




DEVIL'S DINING TABLE. 



rose up from the vicinity of the village, and which looked 
like a huge fort. It was flat at the top, and commanded 
a fine view of the harbor and of the surrounding country ; 
the rock is called the Devil's Dining Table, though where it 
got this curious name I was unable to ascertain. 

We remained at Henley harbor for two days ; it rained 
most of the time, and the fog was continual. On our second 
and last evening I learned that a dance was in progress on 
shore ; and so, with two or three companions, I rowed over to 
attend it, having been instructed as to the whereabouts of 
the house of entertainment by one of the sailors. It was a 
dark, foggy night, and a fine, misty rain was falling. We 
clambered up one of the little wharves, slippery and slimy 
with fish, and then through a storehouse out into the open. It 
is no easy matter to maintain one's footing in going over these 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



123 



slippery wharves, and over the still more slippery floor of the 
storehouses ; even the rocks about are slimy with fish-oil. 
" O'er crag and fen " we went without so much as a kindly 
light to guide us ; at length, after scrambling over numerous 
large rocks, and picking our way as best we might over a bog, 
we ascended a steep side-hill and looked about. It is difficult 
to follow any given direction on a foggy night in Labrador, 
and as we peered about us we could discern the lights of two 
or three houses or huts gleaming out in the fog and darkness ; 
but as the few houses of the settlement were scattered over a 
large area, we paused, not knowing which light to follow. 
Suddenly a moving light gleamed below us ; it was a fisher- 
lass with a lantern, and I hailed her, but she would not an- 
swer, being evidently frightened ; for she quickened her pace, 
and was soon enveloped in the fog. Then a dog — evidently 




HENLEY HARBOR. 



a large one, from his growls— made advances, and I picked up 
a large stone, and held a bit of hard-tack in my other hand, 
ready to make friend or foe, as the case might be ; but after 
considerable snarling the dog seemed to think better of us, 



124 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIKAISTDA. 

and retired. All of a sudden there arose a sound like the 
stampede of a herd of frightened cattle, and as it proceeded 
from a house in the dim distance, we knew that here must be 
the dance, and so made for it. After scaling rocks and crawling 
up and down wet and mossy side-hills, we at length found 
ourselves directly under the house, which was built on piles, 
and by crawling through a hole in the floor we made our en- 
trance into one corner of the ball-room. This novel mode 
of entering did not appear to occasion any surprise, and 
indeed we were lucky to enter thus unharmed among the 
agile and vigorous dancers; for the floor creaked and groaned, 
and the entire house appeared to rock and sway, with the sur- 
prising vigor of the dance. The men wore heavy-soled 
boots, and every now and then as they jigged about they 
would whirl their fair partners fairly off their feet. It was a 
native Labrador dance — a combination of a round and square 
dance — and the most uproarious and deafening, in its effects 
upon the hearing, of any that I have ever attended, though 
we had some lively dances among the Eskimos. The orchestra 
was composed of a fiddler and a performer on a mouth-organ 
who blew loudly, fiercely, and somewhat independently of 
his coadjutor. The room was bare of any furniture, and a 
few lanterns hung from the ceiling ; there were only three or 
four of the fair sex present, and these, of course, were in great 
demand. The room was mainly filled with sailors, fisher- 
men, and tobacco smoke — a very motley group indeed ; but 
as neither dance nor music varied much, we soon grew tired 
and made our way back to the schooner. 

Next morning, September 2, the breeze was fair — at last — 
and we got off at about six o'clock. Shortly after our start 
we counted about twenty icebergs within sight. All day long 
the breeze freshened, until by night we had a regular gale, and 
for several hours we were obliged to lay to under a triple- 
reefed forsesail and forestay sail. The hatchways had to be 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRAKDA. 



125 



closed ; and, to add to our discomfort, the stove in the little 
cabin just in front of our sleeping-apartment in the salt store- 
room began to pour out volumes of smoke that almost choked 
us. One wise individual suggested that salt be thrown on 
the fire to put it out ; the suggestion was acted upon, and 
immediately several shovelfuls of salt were thrust into the 
stove; then there issued forth clouds of smoke ten times more 




HOMEWARD BOUND. 

deadly and terrible than before, and as every one gasped for 
breath many were the invectives hurled at the head of the un- 
fortunate man who had suggested this method of putting out 
a fire. Had he been turned, like Lot's wife, into a pillar of salt, 
I think we should have all rejoiced. However, gradually 
the nuisance abated, and although the odor abided with 
us all night and fought with the fish and bilge- water for 



126 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

supremacy, yet, being hardened sinners, we were enabled to 
snatch some sleep despite the gale and the closeness of our 
quarters. A small party near me, huddled together in sitting 
postures, kept me awake for a while by an earnest discussion 
of the effect of salt upon fire, as if it had not been sufficiently 
demonstrated. One man in particular advanced his argu- 
ments in an almost continuous stream. His extraordinary 
volubility had a certain fascination about it, and I could not 
choose but hear. At length, in a dreamy state, I gave myself 
up to the purely sensuous enjoyment of watching his jaws 
wag, and so fell asleep. 

The next day the storm abated, and on this day and the 
next we passed a number of small fishing schooners, many of 
them within hailing distance. The first question invariably 
was: "Who have you got aboard ?" and the next, "How 
many fish have you ? " We were nearing Sydney, and the 
news of the wreck of the Miranda had evidently reached 
there. We were cheered here and there by a passing schooner 
on our identity becoming known, and on the morning of 
September 5 we entered, at last, with all our colors flying, the 
harbor of Sydney, after a remarkable voyage of fifteen days. 

The story of our journey from Sukkertoppen to Sydney is 
so well told in Captain Dixon's log, which immediately follows 
this narrative, that I have purposely left out many particulars, 
in order to avoid vain repetitions. The familiar fog was still 
with us when we again dropped anchor in the harbor of Syd- 
ney, and a drizzling rain was falling ; but this could not dampen 
our enthusiasm. It was a wild-looking party that rushed on 
North Sydney's shore that day, yet a most hilarious and joy- 
ous one. A bee-line was made for the post-office and cable 
station, and many were the messages sent to anxious ones at 
home telling of our safe arrival. A dinner for all hands had 
been arranged for at the Sydney Hotel, in Sydney proper, in 
the evening, and a committee was despatched to confer with 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



127 



Colonel Granger and have everything in readiness. A mot- 
ley crowd we were as we started for Sydney in two small 
steamers. The rain was falling heavily by this time, and 
many of the party were decked out in yellow oilskins which 
had seen much service, so that from 
a distance they looked not unlike a 
flock of dirty canary-birds. Then there 
were others arrayed in a variety of 
weather-beaten garments that had not 
been changed or taken off since the 
Miranda had faded T 
into the mist. Many 
of the party carried 




SYDNEY POST-OFFICE. 



all their worldly possessions done up in gunny sacks. The 
parade along the streets of Sydney up to the hotel, about 
four blocks from the wharf, was a joyous and picturesque 
one. No tougher-looking gang of men ever marched over that 
quiet thoroughfare. One party of college students marched 
in a solid phalanx, chanting an original adaptation of the 
familiar " Hark, hark, the dogs do bark/' etc., in this wise : 



128 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 



" Hark, hark ! the dogs do bark, 
The wild men are coming to town — 
Some in rags, and some with jags, 
And some with eider-down." 

For a few eider-down quilts had been saved from the spoils. 

The dinner at ihe Sydney Hotel was indeed " a happy 
time/' as Captain Dixon remarks in his log. The two cap- 
tains, Dixon and Farrell, were the heroes of the occasion ; 
and the excellent repast, gotten up under the special super- 
vision of the genial presiding genius of the hotel, Colonel 




SYDNEY HOTEL-MORNING AFTER THE DINNER. 

Granger, was to us, after our limited meals on the schooner, 
a veritable feast of the gods. The dining-hall was draped 
with American and English flags, and with the flags of the 
Cleveland Yacht Club and of Harvard and Yale — the ban- 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 129 

ners that we had borne through mist and snow and ice. 
It was a gala night, and many were the speeches, songs, and 
toasts that were called ont by the toast-master, Mr. James D. 
Dewell, of New Haven, who presided in a most happy man- 
ner. The banquet broke np at about midnight, and then 
farewells began to be said, for many of the party took early 
trains and scattered in various directions. 

A large remnant of the party, however, waited to take the 
little steamer St. Pierre, which, through the courtesy of Bow- 
ring & Archibald, owners of the late Miranda, was sent to 
Sydney to take the party to Halifax, there to meet the steamer 
Portia, a sister ship of the Miranda, and thence to go on to 
New York. 

With three cheers for our host, Colonel Granger, we left 
the comfortable Sydney Hotel and boarded the St. Pierre, 
the following morning. A snug, nice little ship she was, and 
we enjoyed immensely the trip to Halifax. We landed at 
this city on the afternoon of September 7, and found the Por- 
tia waiting for us, and immediately boarded her and were 
assigned staterooms. The Portia, however, was not to start 
for New York until ten o'clock the following morning, so 
we put in the time very agreeably in seeing the sights and 
surroundings of the beautiful city of Halifax. Here we pro- 
cured New York and Boston papers several days old, which 
stated that the Miranda and its passengers and crew were 
probably lost ; but we knew that by this time our despatches 
from Sydney must have been published, and that our relatives 
and friends were assured of our safety. It was like reading 
one's own obituary notice to glance over the sensational 
prognostications of our probable doom. 

Promptly at ten o'clock on the morning of September 8 
we started for New York, feeling that our adventures and 
dangers were a thing of the past ; and yet on this short and 
generally uneventful trip occurred the real tragedy of our 



130 THE LAST CRUISE OE THE MIRANDA. 

remarkable summer's outing. We started with bright and 
clear skies overhead ; but it was not long before the long- 
familiar fog that had dogged us everywhere overtook lis 
here. On the evening of the Oth a heavy fog descended 
and hung about us, now scaling, now falling again, and 
continued on the following day. We were in familiar waters 
off Cuttyhunk Light, and were assembled at the lunch-table 
at about one o'clock on the 10th. The curtain of fog had 
descended again; suddenly we heard the signal for reversing 
the engine, and the next moment we crashed into some 
heavy object, followed immediately by a noise as if the ship 
were crunching and tearing its way through some obstruction; 
then the Portia stood still and trembled. It was not such 
a crash as when we struck the iceberg; nor, again, such a 
one as we had experienced when upon the rocks off Sukker- 
toppen, but it was ominous enough to presage danger. 

The lunch-table was quickly deserted, and on deck a scene 
of pitiful disaster revealed itself. We had run into a schooner 
and literally cut her in two, and a portion of her bow, with 
foremast and rigging, was lying across our deck. The fog 
had lifted as if by magic ; for a moment we could see the 
stern of the schooner lifted high in air, and upon its taffrail 
were two men cutting away at the yawl ; then the remnant of 
the schooner plunged into the sea and sank instantly. No 
other men were seen, and the rest of the crew must have been 
knocked overboard or sunk with the bow. As the vessel 
sank but one man came to the surface, afterward found to be 
the mate. He swam among the debris, and, finally reaching 
a spar, managed to keep afloat until rescued by a boat from 
the Portia. The other man whom we saw seemed unable to 
keep his head above water, but we could see him striking out 
under water, as if endeavoring to reach the surface ; the suc- 
tion was evidently too strong for him, and before our eyes he 
was dragged down into the sea and lost to sight. The mate, 



132 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRAKDA. 

when brought aboard, was almost exhausted with his efforts, 
and was badly bruised. From him we learned that the 
schooner was called the Dora M. French, and that she hailed 
from Bangor, Me. The captain, the steward, and two sailors 
had gone down with the ship. 

The Portia had also suffered considerable damage. Her 
f oretopmast was dislodged and forty feet of rail lost. A hole was 
stove in the starboard bow just below the water-line, and the 
forward compartment filled with water. However, the damage 
was not serious enough to endanger her in any way. For an 
hour or so she lay to, and then slowly steamed onward on her 
way. Meantime her boats had been busy among the debris 
of the schooner, but not a vestige of the crew could be 
found. 

At last, early on the following morning of September 11, 
we reached New York, and our remarkable trip was over. 
Within the short space of barely two months we certainly had 
experienced an extraordinary series of adventures. " Sweet 
is the pleasure after pain," and it is pleasant now to look back 
over the hardships and varied experiences that we encoun- 
tered. Indeed, to have stood even at the outposts of the 
great and wonderful Arctic regions is ample compensation for 
the dangers and hardships that had been experienced. It is 
impossible to describe the beauties and revelations of these 
little-known regions — so different from the beaten paths of 
the ordinary traveller, or from any common experiences — that 
words are lacking in our vocabulary for any adequate descrip- 
tion. Even the camera can do but scant justice ; true, in a 
certain sense, but reducing vast expanses and towering ice- 
bergs and glaciers and snow-capped mountains to such micro- 
scopic proportions as to give but faint ideas of the real 
grandeur and impressiveness of Arctic scenery. Longfellow, 
in one of his finest ballads, tells how the noble Count Ar- 
noldos, standing on the shore, beholds a stately galley steer- 



THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRAKDA. 133 

ing toward the land, and hears the helmsman chant a song of 
the sea, wild and clear and wonderful : 

Till his soul was full of longing, 
And he cried with impulse strong, — 

" Helmsman ! for the love of heaven, 
Teach me, too, that wondrous song ! " 

" Wouldst thou," — so the helmsman answered, — 

" Learn the secret of the sea ? 
Only those who brave its dangers 

Comprehend its mystery ! " 

And only by braving the dangers of the Arctic regions can 
one comprehend their mysteries. 

The season of 1894 was a particularly disastrous one for 
Arctic expeditions of any kind. Peary and Wellman and 
Jackson were all baffled by it ; so little wonder if we did not 
attain, except partially, the objects of our much less ambitious 
enterprise. Since this disastrous season there has been a wide- 
spread cry of Oui bono f as regards Arctic expeditions in gen- 
eral. A senseless cry it is, coming from those who have given 
the subject no adequate consideration. There is scarcely a 
department of human knowledge that does not owe a deep 
debt to the baffled heroic men who have struggled to reach 
the Pole. They have given lessons to the world in patience, 
self-sacrifice, and heroic endurance. If as yet they have not 
attained their ultimate object, they have attained still larger 
results in extending the domains of science, of geographical 
knowledge, of civilization and commerce. If we justly honor 
our great historians, shall we not honor these men who have 
given us new chapters in a greater, larger history than that of 
man — the history of the world, the history of the universe ? 
This material age should at least recognize the material 
benefits that have followed in the wake of Arctic explorations. 
The cod fisheries of Newfoundland, the whale fisheries of the 
Northern Hemisphere, the great fur industries, which have 



134 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 

added millions upon millions of dollars every year to the wealth 
of the world — all these have been opened up by hardy Arctic 
explorers. But not yet has the world learned to appreciate 
the great work that has been done by the soldiers of science, 
or their bloodless victories, of vaster importance to the race 
than a Waterloo or a Sedan. The records of their victories are 
known only to the few, are unheeded by the many. The man 
of blood is still the world's hero. In England to-day the sol- 
dier who has won the greatest honors, and applause, and great 
wealth, has done little else than to slaughter some savage men 
and make them bow to a foreign yoke ; but he has spilled 
human blood, and so his name has resounded from shore to 
shore. For, as in the old gladiatorial days, the thumbs of the 
cruel populace are still reversed, and the sacrifice of human 
blood is demanded as the price of its applause. Kot yet have 
the great soldiers of science received their meed of apprecia- 
tion ; but when "the war-drum throbs no longer, and the 
battle-flags are furled," then will the world more fully under- 
stand the debt it owes to such men. 

It is no vain ambition that leads the explorer into far north- 
ern latitudes, but a higher motive — a desire to comprehend 
the vast economy of this planet, to read its geological history, 
and to give the results of his labors to his fellow-men. Until 
the thirst for knowledge and the love of adventure is dead in 
the human heart, the Arctic regions will still attract explorers 
to its vast silences. 




CAPTAIN DIXON'S LOG. 



From August 16 to September 5, 1894. 



Nepisat, August 16, 189Jf. — About 4 p. m. came in 
to get a dory that we had landed here, intending to go to 
Cape Amelia. A native Eskimo came alongside, and by signs 
and broken English made us understand that we should 
go to Holsteinborg, that an American vessel had struck a 
rock and stove a hole in her bottom. After many questions 
he said it was an American man-o'-war. We took the kayak 
on board, and he showed us three letters. One was addressed 
to Captain Lawson, of schooner Carrie W. Babson, and the 
other two were addressed to captains of American fishing ves- 
sels. I opened one of these, and read the following letter 
from Dr. Frederick A. Cook : 

"Holsteinborg, Greenland, August 16, 1894. 
' ' To Captains of American Fishing Schooners. 

" Gentlemen : — TheS.S. Miranda, carrying my expedition, with 
seventy persons on board, has struck a sunken rock coming out of 
Sukkertoppen ; she is now lying at that harbor disabled and in distress. 
Will you kindly come to our rescue ? I am at Holsteinborg with 
five of the members of my party. Shall remain there until onei week 
from date ; then return to Sukkertoppen. If this note reaches you 
in time to meet me at Holsteinborg kindly do so ; if not, come 
direct to Sukkertoppen, and send a note by kayak at once to Hol- 
steinborg. 

" Frederick A. Cook, 

" Commanding." 

I immediately made sail and started for Holsteinborg, 
but the wind fell off before we could reach the mouth of the 
fiord. Seeing that we could do nothing with the vessel, with 



136 THE LAST OBTUSE OF THE MTEANDA. 

a calm and fog setting in, I left the schooner in charge of my 
brother "Will, to take her back to Nepisat, while I took a 
dory and four men to row to Holsteinborg, a distance of about 
eleven miles. "We arrived there about ten o'clock at night. 
On entering the harbor we were greeted by the Eskimos, who 
informed us that Dr. Cook was at the governor's house, and 
we were escorted there by the entire settlement of Eskimos. 
I found Dr. Cook and his party, and he informed me that 
together with five Eskimos they had made the passage in an 
open boat from Sukkertoppen to Holsteinborg, a distance of 
ninety-five miles, or one hundred and forty miles, as they 
had to row it along the coast. They had arrived at Holstein- 
borg the day before, after a stormy passage of five days. Dr. 
Cook said that their steamship, the Miranda, of Liverpool, 
England, had struck a rock while going out of Sukkertoppen, 
and that there was a leak in her bottom that let the water 
into the tank for water-ballast ; the tank had quickly filled 
with water, and the pumps could not reduce it. The ship 
would float as long as the tank could bear the strain of the 
pressure thus brought to bear upon it, but if the tank should 
burst the ship would sink immediately. Dr. Cook wanted a 
vessel to convey the passengers to some place of communica- 
tion with their homes, and some one to accompany the ship 
to some place where she could be repaired. He had a letter 
from Captain "W. J. Farrell, of the S.S. Miranda, which ran as 

follows : 

" Sukkertoppen, South Greenland, August 10, 1894. 
4 ' To Whom it May Concern. 

Dear Sir : — The steamer Miranda, of Liverpool, England, from 
New York, with Dr. Frederick A. Cook's Arctic expedition, struck 
a sunken rock seven miles southwest of this harbor. The ship is 
making water. Dr. Cook is going to you for immediate assistance, 
which please send, as we are in distress. 
" Yours truly, 

" Captain W. J. Farrell, 

" Master of S.S. Miranda." 



captain dixon's log. 137 

As Dr. Cook had no authority to make a bargain that 
would recompense us for our loss sustained by leaving the 
fishing-grounds, or the risk that would be incurred by us in 
making a departure from our regular fishing voyage, I hardly 
knew what to do. Common humanity required that we 
should go to the relief of our fellows in distress, while on 
the other hand our voyage was likely to be a prosperous 
one if we stuck to our fishing. We had a crew of eighteen 
men, all on shares, and I felt as though they should have 
a voice in the matter before I would make any departure 
from our voyage. Sukkertoppen was ninety-five miles from 
Holsteinborg. The harbor was small, and the approach to 
it was encompassed by rocks. Our charts were little better 
than none. There were numerous icebergs all along the 
route, and a dense fog prevailed most of the time, with a 
very strong, irregular current setting along the coast, and in 
and out of the fiords. The land was strange to us (none of 
us having seen that part of the coast before-), and if anything 
should happen to our vessel we should have to forfeit all 
right to our insurance on the vessel and the fish we had 
caught. I told Dr. Cook that I would go on board and 
consult with the crew, and if I decided to go to Sukker- 
toppen I would run up off Ilolsteinborg and set the flag for 
him to come off in his boat. We left Holsteinborg about 
2 a. m., August 17, and arrived at Nepisat at 5 a. m. I 
called the crew into the cabin and explained the case to 
them, and asked them if we should go to Sukkertoppen. 
One of the crew asked me if I was willing to go, and I said I 
was. He said then, " I am willing to go, for you have more 
at stake than we have." That seemed to be the opinion of 
all the crew, and we got under way and started for Hol- 
steinborg with a light air from the eastward. At 9 A. m. we 
reached the mouth of the fiord, and set our flag (being then 
about eight miles from Holsteinborg). Soon after leaving 



138 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 

the fiord, and about two miles off of the land, "we strucK 
a sunken rock, and after bumping several times she came off, 
and we beat up off Holsteinborg. At 4 p. m. the boat came 
off, and we kept off with a good northeast breeze. At 8 p. m. 
the wind hauled to the westward with a strong breeze and 
a thick fog. 

August 18. — Strong breeze, westerly. At 11 A. m. it cleared 
a little and we saw the coast. By 3 p. m. we had worked as 
far as Old Sukkertoppen. At 4 p. m. took in our mainsail 
and jib and set the storm trysail. At 8 p. m. took in trysail 
and put single reef in foresail. Had it rather rough for com- 
fort during the night. 

August 19. — At 8 a. m. the fog cleared a little and we 
saw land. Set the trysail and began to work down shore. 
In the afternoon it began to moderate, and we set the jib and 
single reef mainsail. At 5 p. m. set the staysail and flying 
jib. At 9 p. m. we were off Sukkertoppen, and we jogged 
off and on until daylight. 

August 20. — As soon as it began to get light we tacked 
and made for the harbor. At 8 A. m. an Eskimo pilot came 
on board and informed me that I was inside of the sunken 
rocks and in a fair way for the harbor. Shortly after that we 
were met by a lot of native kayakers. There also came two boats 
belonging to the Miranda, in one of which was the master, Cap- 
tain W. J. Farrell. I told Captain Farrell that I would for the 
sum of four thousand dollars take the passengers and carry 
them to Gloucester, or some place where they could get trans- 
portation home, providing they would furnish provisions. Cap- 
tain Farrell and Dr. Cook informed me that they would furnish 
plenty of provisions, and that they considered the terms mod- 
erate and reasonable. So the bargain was accepted by Cap- 
tain W. J. Farrell. Captain Farrell then asked me if I would 
accompany the ship to some port where she could be repaired. 
The object of this was to be ready to rescue the crew in case 



CAPTAIN DIXON'S LOG. 139 

the ship should have to be abandoned. He thought that I 
could accompany the ship in the interest of the underwriters. 
I told him that I would do so, and we agreed to leave the 
amount of recompense to arbitration. Having arrived at the 
harbor, we dropped our anchor and hauled alongside of the 
Miranda, and began at once to make what hasty preparations 
we could to accommodate the passengers. During the after- 
noon I made out the two papers of agreements, and in the 
evening we took them to the governors' house, where we signed 
them, and they were signed, witnessed, and sealed by the 
Governor, and signed and witnessed by the Assistant Governor 
and the chief mate of steamer Miranda. 

Copy of Aeticles of Agreement. — No. 1. 

SUKKERTOPPEN, GREENLAND, August 20, 1894. 

Whereas, The steamer Miranda being in a disabled condition, it 
is agreed between her master, Captain W. J. Farrell, and Captain 
Geo. W. Dixon, master of the Gloucester fishing schooner Rigel, that 
the passengers of the steamer Miranda be transferred on board the 
schooner Rigel, and carried to Gloucester, and that the crew and 
owners receive from the owners and agents of the steamer Miranda 
the sum of $4,000 as recompense for breaking up the fishing expedi- 
tion of said schooner. 

W. J. Farrell, Master SS. Miranda. 
Geo. W. Dixon, Master Schooner Rigel. 
Geo. Manuel, Chief Officer SS. Miranda. 
Witness : 

S. Bistrup, Governor. 

G. Baumann, Governor's Assistant. 



Copy of Articles of Agreement. — No. 2. 

Sukkertoppen, Greenland, August 20, 1894. 
Whereas, The steamer Miranda being in a disabled condition, it 
is agreed between her master, Captain W. J. Farrell, and Captain 
Geo. W. Dixon, master of the Gloucester fishing schooner Rigel, that 
the said schooner Rigel shall accompany the said steamer Miranda 
into some convenient port of repair. The crew of said schooner 
Rigel will hold themselves in readiness to rescue the crew and the 



140 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

officers of steamer Miranda, in case the steamer shall founder or 
have to he abandoned ; and it is agreed that the recompense for 
such accompanying the steamer shall be settled by arbitration, or by 
mutual agreement between the agents of schooner Rigel and the 
underwriters of said steamer Miranda at the port of New York. 
W. J. Farrell, Master SS. Miranda. 
Geo. W. Dixon, Master Schooner Rigel. 
Geo. Manuel, Chief Officer SS. Miranda. 
Witness : 

G. S. Bistrup, Governor. 

G. Baumann, Governor's Assistant. 

At Sukkertoppen I found tilings substantially as the letter 
had stated. The steamer Miranda was an iron shij) of be- 
tween eleven and twelve hundred tons. She had struck a 
sunken rock off Sukkertoppen, and had evidently stove a 
large hole in her bottom, in a position where it let the water 
into the tank that was constructed to carry water-ballast, and 
the tank had almost immediately filled with water that forced 
through the hole. Thus the whole strain of the bearings of 
the ship upon the water was brought to bear upon the tank. 
A survey had been held and the vessel pronounced not 
safe to carry the crew or passengers. There were no means 
to repair the damage on the coast of Greenland, and the sur- 
vey had shown that it was advisable that the passengers be 
transferred to some other vessel, and that some vessel should 
be secured to accompany the vessel to some port of repair, for 
if the tank should prove strong enough, the vessel would 
probably go safe. 

In order to make room for the passengers, we took out 
about fifty hundredweight of salt, which we gave to the 
Eskimos, together with a lot of lumber and miscellaneous 
other things, to the value of about $85 altogether, and thus 
we obtained a space in the after-hold, on the salt, of about 
fifteen feet in length and twenty feet in width, and four feet 
in height. A door connected this with the cabin, and it was 



CAPTAIX DIXON's LOG. 141 

decided that the passengers occupy this space and the cabin, 
and that the crew should occupy the forecastle. "We then 
spread sails on top of the salt, and mattresses on the sails, 
thus making snug but quite comfortable quarters, reaching 
forward to underneath the after-hatch. Forward of this was 
our fish, occupying a length of about twelve feet, leaving a 
space forward and under the main hatch of about twelve feet 
long, where we carried our water and provisions, and also our 
trawl and bony lines. This being completed, the passengers 
came on board on the morning of August 21. 

In order to insure against a separation in case of a fog 
or in the darkness, Ave decided that the steamer should tow 
the schooner, so we used our one hundred and fifty fathoms 
of new cable as a tow-line, and arranged a few signals between 
myself and Captain Farrell, so we could have some little com- 
munication in case of need or accident. As we would require 
more room in case we had to take off the crew of the 
Miranda, we decided to put some of our trawl gear on board 
of the steamer before we left Sukkertoppen, so we put our 
sixty trawl anchors, valued at 143.20, and fifty-three trawl 
buoys, valued at $63, on board the steamer. 

This finished our preparations, and we got under way in 
the morning of August 21, and with flags flying and the Es- 
kimos cheering us and firing guns we proceeded out to sea 
with the passengers singing " My Country, 'tis of Thee/' 

August 21. — At 10.30 A. m. we took our departure from 
Sukkertoppen, and steered west by our conrpass. The wind 
wasS.S."W., with a fresh breeze, and drizzly. We had our try- 
sail and foresail set, and were making seven and one-half knots 
per hour. We passed numerous icebergs all day. The wind 
freshened until midnight. It blew a strong breeze then ; 
fell off by 4 a. m. to a fresh breeze on the morning of 
August 22. 

August 22. — Swell from south, with misty rain and indi- 



142 THE LAST CBUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 

cations of a storm at noon. The log showed 192 knots 
made since leaving Sukkertoppen, and I communicated 
this to Captain Farrell. By 7 p. m. the wind hauled to 
S.S.E., and increased to a moderate gale with a rising 
sea. At 10 p. m. a sea heaving in on our port side. Our 
vessel is crowded, we having on board sixty men, includ- 
ing our crew, and we have to keep off our hatch to get 
ventilation. The Miranda is carrying her lifeboats swung 
loose to the davitts, ready to drop them at an instant's notice. 
To-night the captain has a red light on deck. At 11 P. m. 
the wind seems to moderate a little. At midnight I hauled 
the log, and it showed 289 knots since leaving Sukkertoppen. 
August' 23. — At ten minutes past 12, midnight, the 
steamer Miranda sounded her whistle three blasts, that 
being the signal that she was in a sinking condition, and 
soon after they hung the red light over the stern as a 
signal for me to be ready. Captain Farrell slackened the 
speed of the Miranda, and as the two vessels came close to- 
gether he hailed me to be ready, as he was in a sinking con- 
dition. I hailed him to cut our cable, and drop off in his 
boats, and we would pick them up. He said that he would 
try to hold by the steamer until daylight. There . was a very 
heavy sea running from the southeast. Captain Farrell let 
the steamer come to head the sea, and when she was in the 
hollow of the sea we could see her masts at times. As soon 
as it was light he sent a boat with part of his men, and the 
boat then made three more trips, while we launched three 
dories that made from two to three trips each, thus taking off 
the crew and the officers and considerable provisions. Cap- 
tain Farrell came off in the last boat, and before he left he 
cast off our tow-line, and the Miranda was soon out of sight 
in the dense fog. The ship was abandoned at 5.30 a. m. in 
latitude 61° 15' 1ST. and longitude 58° 40' W. The barometer 
stood at 28.80 after the last boat came alongside of it. The 



CAPTAIN dixojst's LOG. 143 

crew and the officers of the Miranda numbered thirty-three 
men, making us ninety-three men all told, and in order to 
make room for them in the main hold I was compelled to 
take off the main hatch and throw overboard the remainder 
of our trawl gear, consisting of 

32 sheets or bundles of trawl, valued at ,$257.60 

3,200 fathoms of bony line " " 32.00 

1 oil barrel " " 1.50 

With considerable rigging, etc. " " 15.00 

$306.10 

Captain Farrell sent from the steamer two bundles contain- 
ing silverware, and two chronometers, and two sextants, and 
some lanterns, and the crew saved their clothes. The silver, 
chronometers, and sextants, and the captain's clothing, were 
put in the cabin, but the lanterns were left on deck, because 
there was no room for them below. Captain Farrell and his 
crew were wet and draggled when they reached our vessel. 
I told the crew to spread their clothes in the main hold, so as 
to make a sort of field bed, and into this we packed all of the 
crew that we could put in, and then put on the hatch and 
barred it. After heaving in cable we made sail under our 
trysail and foresail and fore staysail and jib, and steered 
southwest, to try to gain Hamilton Inlet, on the coast of 
Labrador, that place being about 380 miles off. At 8 p. m. 
the wind died out, and we took in the foresail to keep it 
from slating to pieces. 

August 2Jf. — At 1 a. m. light air S.W., barometer 28.80, 
very heavy swell from S.E. Hoisted the sail, hauled the log, 
which showed 40 knots made since the steamer was aban- 
doned. At 8 a. M. light air west, made sail and set main- 
sail and staysail, heading S.S.W. Barometer on 28.88. At 
9.30 wind freshened to fresh breeze. At 12, log showed 
7G knots. W.N.W. strong breeze. Got a peep at the sun 



144: THE LAST CKITISE OF THE MIKAHDA. 

this afternoon, which showed schooner to be in longitude 
57° 55' W. 

August 25.— At 2.20 A. m. got latitude by North Star 58° 
5' N. Log on 95 knots. At 4 A. M. wind hauled southwest- 
erly. Log on 5 knots, showing us to have made 205 knots 
since steamer was abandoned. At 8 a. m. wind S.W.; tacked 
ship in latitude 57° 40', longitude 56° 45'. This is our first 
fine day, and the people are enjoying themselves sitting about 
on deck. There is a light air from the S.W., and but little 
progress has been made to-day. The barometer has been up 
to 29.50. At 6 p. m. the clouds show signs of rain, with fre- 
quent puffs of wind from the southward. At 8 p. m. it began 
to rain, and continued in floods all night. 

August 26. — At 3.30 A. m. the wind ceased, and the wind 
nauled with a clearing sky in the westward. The barometer 
fell to 29.40. At 7.30 A. m. longitude by observation 56° 56' 
W. The log on 30 knots ; fine breeze northwest. At noon 
latitude by observation 56° 40' N". Passed by numerous ice- 
bergs all day. In the afternoon the wind fell off and hauled 
to S.W., with light airs all night. 

August 28. — At 8 A. m. sighted the coast of Labrador bear- 
ing W.N.W., and we took the liberty bell on deck and rang 
it; at noon got observation 53° 32' ~N., and found the land to 
be Spotted Island. We had the wind S.S.W. and threatening 
weather, and decided to make a harbor for the night. We 
spoke a schooner and got a pilot from it for five dollars to 
guide us into the Punch Bowl Harbor, where we arrived at 
5.30 p. m. and filled water before dark. 

August 29. — At 8 A. m. lightair from the westward, and we 
got under way and proceeded to sea, towing the vessel with 
dories until we were clear of the harbor at 11.30 A. m. Five 
of the Miranda's crew were left at Punch Bowl : the chief 
mate, Mr. Manuel ; the pilot, Mr. Dumphy ; the steward, Mr. 
Farrell, and two firemen. We had it moderate all day and night, 



CAPTAIN" DIX0N"'S LOG. 145 

with, a dense fog. Saw the icebergs in the night. The day 
after we got outside of the harbor Messrs. Dove and Porter 
and Brown took a dory and, rowing among the fishing boats, 
procured a nice lot of fresh codfish, and we had a fine fish 
chowder. 

August. 30 — Calm in the forenoon, and light breeze in the 
afternoon. Thick fog all day. Passed numerous icebergs, 
some of them very close. To-day we discovered that the 
sailors of the Miranda had stolen our case of condensed milk, 
and I decided that, as a punishment, they should hereafter 
eat at the last table in the afternoon. We saw a great many 
icebergs, and at 5 p. m. we heard the breakers on shore, and 
we tacked and stood off. 

August 31. — At 4 p. m. the fog scaled, and we saw Belle 
Isle bearing S.W. about ten miles. Saw a small schooner 
bound to Green Bay, IS". F., and told it to report us. Strong 
breeze. We counted ten icebergs in sight at once. At noon 
we took a pilot and went into Henley's Harbor, paying four 
dollars to the pilot, which was raised by a tarpolan muster, 
and the passengers bought lots of fresh codfish, while I bought 
a barrel of herring. At 8 p. m. I went on shore, and had a fish 
dinner in company with Captain Farrell, Commodore Gardner, 
Dr. Yalle, Mr. Cleveland, Mr. Clover, Mr. Dewell, and Mr. 
Dibbs. Dr. Cook bought some provisions. 

September 2. — The fog cleared off during the night, and 
as soon as it was daylight we got our pilot to take us out of 
the harbor. Got outside at 5.30 A. m. Wind west. Counted 
sixteen icebergs in sight at once just outside the harbor. At 
9 A. ii., calm. At noon the wind breezed out to westward, 
with rain. Passed a number of icebergs to-day. At 6 A. m., 
strong breeze E. by N". Took in mainsail and jib, and set 
trysail. Wind increasing. At 10 p. m. rope started off on the 
foresail, and we hauled it down and repaired it as well as 
possible, and put three reefs in it and set it, and then steered 



146 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

W. by 1ST. to smoother water, under the lee of the Labrador 
coast, as the wind was hauling to the northward. We had a 
very disagreeable night. Our stove would not draw, and we 
had to put the fire out, leaving it cold and damp and disa- 
greeable. However, our passengers stood it like martyrs. 

September 3. — At 4 p. m. we met a steamer going east- 
ward ; had a very sharp cross sea. Took in the trysail to let 
the stove draw, and built a fire in the cabin. At 6 A. m. shook 
the reef out of the foresail and put in a small reef. At 8 A. M. 
set the trysail and jib. At noon shook the reef out of the 
foresail. The wind being N.N.W., steered W.S.W. since 

8 A. m. At 4 P. M. set mainsail and staysail, and set the 
course southwest, holding a good breeze all night. Last night 
Professor Brewer got a severe fall, caused by a lurch of the 
vessel that threw him on the cabin floor. Dr. Valle and Dr. 
Cook attended him, and found some bruises, not necessarily 
serious. 

September 4- — At 4 a. m. got latitude by North Star, 48° 
13' N. At daylight saw Cape Anquilla bearing S.S.E. At 

9 a. m. saw Cape North, C. B., bearing S.W. Had a fine 
breeze until up with "White Point. At 4 p. m. the wind fell 
off, nearly calm. At 8 A. m. we were off Ingamish Island, 
and the wind hauled to the S.W., with fog and rain that 
lasted all night. 

September 5. — At 1 A. m. we saw Sydney light to wind- 
ward, and after beating up, we entered Sydney harbor at 5 
A. m., and got in and anchored about 7 A. m. Captain Farrell 
and Dr. Cook and myself went ashore, and I called at the 
residence of the Custom-house officer. He gave me permission 
to get any provisions that we might need, also permission for 
any of the passengers to go ashore to the hotels, which they 
were not long in doing, most of the passengers having 
declared their intention that they would go home by some 
other conveyance. At 2 p. m. the Custom-house officer came 



CAPTAIN" DIXON'S LOG. 147 

on board, and the passengers and crew of the Miranda were 
allowed to cake their effects on shore. In the evening Cap- 
tain Farrell and myself were invited to South Sydney, by the 
passengers, to a grand supper in the Sydney Hotel. I need 
not say that we accepted the invitation, and that it was a 
happy time that we could well appreciate after being huddled 
together as we had been for the last fifteen days. 



ATMOSPHERIC DUST IN THE ARCTIC 
REGIONS. 



BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM H. BREWER. 




The atmosphere always con- 
tains dust, and the phenomena 
relating to it have long been a 
subject of much interest to me. 
It is obvious that the air of the 
Arctic regions must be much less 
dust-laden than our own ; there- 
fore, during our trip to Greenland 
I made such observations on the 
related phenomena as were prac- 
ticable without the use of special 
instruments. 

The dust (including smoke) in 
the atmosphere is generally spoken of as an impurity or 
pollution. It renders the air less transparent, and is the source 
of various diseases and ailments of both mankind and animals. 
In this sense it is an impurity. It may also be so considered 
in the sense that it is not gas, but consists of solid particles 
suspended in a gaseous medium. In another sense it is not 
an impurity, but rather a permanent constituent of the 
atmosphere, always and everywhere present. It is also not 
an impurity in the sense that as a constituent of the air it 
plays an essential part in many meteorological phenomena. 
It varies enormously in its quantity, its fineness, its origin, its 
chemical composition, and in its effects, but is never entirely 
absent. 



ATMOSPHERIC DUST IN - THE AECTIO REGIONS. 149 

The relation of the suspended dust-particles to various at- 
mospheric phenomena has been the subject of much recent 
study, and each year adds to its interest. It is scarcely more 
than twenty years since Tyndall showed its biological impor- 
tance as being the active cause of ordinary fermentation and 
putrefaction, and also as causing the blue color of the sky. 
It is not yet fifteen years since Aitken showed the part it 
played in the formation of clouds, fog, and rain. Since then 
numerous observers have confirmed their conclusions and 
studied its relation to the colors of the sky, the nature of haze, 
and other atmospheric phenomena. 

The systematic investigations have, however, been mostly 
restricted to work in laboratories or observations on the free 
air of a few regions in Europe and the United States, sup- 
plemented by casual observations on certain atmospheric phe- 
nomena observed elsewhere in the temperate and tropical 
zones. So far as I know, the recorded observations made in 
the polar regions are confined to the fact that dust has been 
found in the snow by several Arctic explorers. Captain 
Hares found it in the stratified snow over the " palasocrystic 
sea" in the far north, and others have noted it in the snows of 
Greenland and Lapland. 

For a better understanding of the relations of atmospheric 
dust to certain phenomena in the Arctic regions it may be 
well to state a few elementary facts in physics and the con- 
ditions that exist in the other climates. 

Watery vapor is a colorless gas and as invisible as the other 
gases are that constitute most of the atmosphere. It only 
becomes visible when condensed as cloud, fog, snow, or rain. 
Ordinary air will hold only a certain amount of this invisible 
vapor, the quantity depending on the temperature. When it 
contains all of the vapor it will hold at any temperature it is 
said to be saturated. If the temperature is raised, the amount 
of vapor required to saturate air increases, and on the other 



150 THE LAST CRUISE OP THE MIRANDA. 

hand, if the air is cooled below the point of saturation a part 
of the vapor condenses as cloud, rain, or snow. The tempera- 
ture at which it begins to condense is called the " dew-point," 
which is also the point of saturation. If it condenses on a 
large surface it is obviously liquid, but if condensation takes 
place throughout the mass of the air it forms a cloud, as 
always occurs when steam from a jet issues into the outer air. 
Until lately there has been much uncertainty as to the nature 
of this cloud. Some considered that the particles were hollow 
vesicles — minute bubbles, as it were — each containing a little 
air, and thus made buoyant. Others held that the particles 
were simply minute drops of water, so small that they were 
suspended in the gaseous medium, just as particles of dust are. 
In laboratory experiments on the matter the formation of cloud 
was found to be very capricious ; sometimes it formed and 
sometimes not, and several curious hypotheses were suggested 
to account for the anomalies. 

It was believed, however, that whenever saturated air was 
cooled below the dew-point condensation would and must 
occur, as it certainly did in free air. If it was on a cooled 
surface, then as dew ; if throughout the whole mass of the 
air, then a cloud must be formed within the air itself; and if the 
supply of vapor was continued, or the temperature continued 
to fall, then the cloud-particles would increase in size and 
become drops of rain, or, if this occurs below 32° Fahr., then 
frost or snow. Such was the belief until a very few years ago. 

It is now proved that steam or watery vapor does not 
readily condense unless it has a surface to condense upon. In 
the open air the suspended dust-particles furnish this surface. 
Air in closed vessels may artificially be freed from all dust- 
particles, and if a jet of steam be admitted into such an atmos- 
phere no cloud is formed ; the air becomes supersaturated — 
that is, contains much more vapor than it will hold in its 
natural state. It has thus been made to hold several times 



ATMOSPHEEIC DUST IN" THE AKCTIC REGION'S. 151 

the normal amount required for saturation. If the smallest 
amount of common air (dust-laden as it always is) be admitted 
into such supersaturated air, cloud immediately forms. As 
Aitken expresses it, " dust is the germ of which clouds and fog 
are the developed phenomena." 

Atmospheric dust is of very varied origin and fineness. A 
part of it is organic, coming from the vegetable and animal 
world, either as part of original growth or organic material 
partially decayed. Some of it consists of the solid particles in 
smoke ; a part consists of pulverized soil raised by the winds ; 
some doubtless comes from dust in space or the combustion of 
shooting-stars when they reach the atmosphere. These various 
ingredients are mingled in every conceivable proportion and 
are of every degree of fineness, from coarse drifting sands 
down to particles of molecular fineness. Illuminated by the 
sun or other light, the air becomes visible because of this dust. 
The rays are scattered, and diffused daylight and twilight are 
among the results. The particles may be so small as to break 
up the light-waves and by diffraction and polarization pro- 
duce colors — reds, blues, greens, yellows, and their various 
combinations, according to the size and character of the 
particles. 

Moisture begins to accumulate on these particles long be- 
fore cloud begins to form, changing the color and visibility of 
the atmosphere, so the aspect of haze changes with the dry- 
ness of the air as well as with the size of the particles. 

The sirocco of Egypt is a hot southerly wind from the 
desert, so laden with fine dust that it is an Arabian saying 
that it will penetrate the shell of an egg. Travellers describe 
the color of the sun seen through this air as red or dull 
purple. The harmattan is a scorching easterly wind blowing 
from the interior of the Sahara toward the Atlantic between 
Capes Lopez and Verde. It is so laden with fine dust that it 
is often described as a " dry fog," through which the sun ap- 



152 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

pears of a dull red. It extends out over the Atlantic for 
nearly a thousand miles, and has been described by many 
travellers. It is much like the "dry storms" of San Diego 
County, California, which are hot, withering easterly winds 
coming over the intervening mountains from the interior 
deserts, intensely dry, and so laden with impalpable dust that 
the sun is seen through it dull and brown in color. The 
"dry fogs" of eastern California are of similar origin, and 
assume a variety of phases, according to the season. 

The dry fogs, so called, which occur in many parts of the 
world, are composed of dust, not water. One extended over 
Europe for weeks in 1783, from the dust thrown out by the 
great volcanic eruption in Iceland that year. The great erup- 
tion of Krakatoa in July, 1883, belched forth dust for many 
days, and in such quantities that the coarser portions covered 
some of the neighboring islands several feet thick, smothering 
the unfortunate inhabitants. The finer particles were wafted 
around the world, producing effects that caused wonderment 
everywhere. In India the sun rose and set green for a week. 
In the Seychelles and in Brazil the sun was as pale as the 
moon. In Europe and the United States the most wondrous 
red sun-glows illumined the western sky a month or two 
later. We all remember them in the late November of that 
year. They extended to the Hawaiian Islands. 

Civilization and agriculture add greatly to the amoun of 
atmospheric dust. The cultivated fields and the dry roads 
furnish much material, and the smoke produced in every 
house and manufactory adds to it. I explored the Eocky 
Mountains of Colorado before there were any railways or 
big cities there, and again a quarter of a century later, after 
it had become a great State, traversed by numerous railways, 
and when great cities had risen where I had only seen open 
plain or secluded valley. Farms covered the plain, and smoke 
rose from numerous smelting works and manufactories. Dur- 



ATMOSPHEKIC DUST IN THE AECTIC REGIONS. 153 

ing both visits I studied the atmospheric effect both from the 
valleys and from the mountain-tops to above fourteen thou- 
sand feet. The change in the atmospheric aspects produced 
by man was striking and obvious. The dust of civilization, 
the smoke from the numerous smelters, locomotives, and 
household fires, had so polluted the air that it was scarcely 
half so transparent as before, and had curiously changed the 
aspect of the landscapes when seen from the heights 

No height yet reached by man is above this dust, but the 
higher we go the finer it is, producing corresponding effects. 
The intensely dark blue of the sky, the color often tinged 
with violet when seen from high peaks, is due to the fineness 
of the atmospheric dust at those altitudes. The coarser dust 
lies nearer the surface. Professor Langley has described it as 
seen from the summit of Mount Whitney, looking eastward 
over the deserts, and I have studied it from numerous peaks. 
The aspect varies with the season, with the weather at the 
time, and with the time of day. For illustration I may cite 
my experience on Lassen's Peak, in northern California. 
The first ascent was made when a cyclonic area was passing. 
An ocean of cloud was below us, driven by the furious wind 
and tossed into gigantic billows. We were entirely above 
this. Its surface was the purest white, illuminated by the 
sun from a cloudless sky, and eighty miles away the majestic 
curve of Mount Shasta rose a mile into the clear air above 
this cloud-ocean. 

The next ascent was a few days later, after the storm had 
entirely passed, and illustrated the other features. This peak 
commands a wider view than I have seen elsewhere, extend- 
ing in some directions to two hundred miles. We made the 
ascent in the night, and watched the marvellous colors of the 
dawn over the dusty deserts in the east. West and south of 
us was the great central valley of California, its objects clear 
in the early morning, but before midday it was filled with 



154 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIKAKDA. 

dust to the depth of a mile or more, shutting out all distant 
objects on the bottom. It was a hazy ocean with ill-defined 
surface and shores, shading into the mountains that rose 
above it on either side. The surface passed insensibly into 
that finer and clearer dust which extended into the upper 
regions of the atmosphere. At sunrise the shadow of the 
conical peak was visible, and the sun shining on the motes 
made the air visible on either side of the shadow, which was 
wonderfully distinct against the clear sky. It was of deep 
cobalt-blue, sharply contrasting with the light azure-blue of 
the sunlit air about it. By optical illusion this shadow 
seemed far higher than the peak itself. Owing to the curva- 
ture of the earth, it stood far above the mountain ranges on 
the distant horizon, a gigantic spectral peak projected against 
the western sky, sinking as the sun mounted higher, an 
object of indescribable grandeur. 

Travellers have often described similar shadows of other 
peaks. Other optical phenomena occur, some due to the 
dust alone, others due to the partially condensed moisture on 
the dust. The Spectre of the Brocken, in Germany, and the 
glory about Adam's Peak, in Ceylon, are well-known ex- 
amples. 

The exquisite blue of the tropical skies, the dark blue- 
violet sky seen from very high peaks, the various phases of 
haze over landscapes, the charm of our Indian summer atmos- 
phere, the green sun seen in India and in Ecuador after vol- 
canic eruptions, the bloody sun of some climes and the 
copper sun of others, are among the optical phenomena due to 
atmospheric dust. 

Our trip to Greenland was from the familiar atmospheric 
conditions of our own clime to those entirely new to me, and 
therefore had an especial interest. The ice and snow were 
not new except as to quantity and thickness. Much of the 
vegetation had a sort of familiar look ; I had met so many 



ATMOSPHERIC DUST Itf THE ARCTIC REGION'S. 155 

of the same species on the alpine peaks of California, 
Colorado, and Switzerland. But the atmospheric aspects 
were new and strange, and at times fascinating. They showed 
themselves in the character of the rains and fogs, in the 
aspects of the sky and the landscapes, and in the mirages 
seen over the water. 

The rains and fogs, and other atmospheric phenomena of 
that portion of the North which we visited, were just such as 
we might infer from the paucity of smoke and dust in the air 
there. Over the millions of square miles within the Arctic 
Circle practically no smoke is generated, and but little for 
many more millions lying in the high latitudes surrounding 
it. All the other sources of dust are scanty, and most of that 
which is wafted to the regions from more southern climes is 
washed out rapidly by the abundant rains and fogs. From 
the nature of the case, the difference between the air- temper- 
ature and the dew-point can never be so great as it is in our 
latitude. 

It was evident from the character of both the fogs and 
rains that there was a paucity of dust-particles in the air for 
the water to condense upon. None of the fogs seen north of 
latitude 52° or 53° are so white and opaque as those which 
are common south of latitude 50°. There is much exaggera- 
tion in the popular description of fogs. We often hear 
them described as being so thick that nothing can be seen 
a hundred feet away. In fact, such fogs are rare, on sea or 
land. Comparatively few fogs are so opaque that large dark 
objects cannot be seen through them two hundred feet. I 
saw none in the Greenland seas through which we could not 
see several hundred feet, and usually very much farther. The 
fogs were all much more transparent than those we met with 
off the coast of New England and Nova Scotia on our voyage 
both out and back. They were, however, as a rule, very 
much wetter, and more misty. Often, when the fog was so 



156 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

transparent that we could see a half-mile, or even a mile, in 
every direction from the ship, the water would drip like rain 
from the rigging and every exposed surface, and our beards 
and clothes would be rapidly covered with fine drops. 

Even those surface fogs which rested on the water under 
a clear sky, and which shut out the horizon, but with the sun 
shining through from above, were very wet. The ship's rig- 
ging, and even our beards, would drip, furnishing surface for 
condensation. On our return, and when in the dense, opaque 
fogs met with south of New England, I noticed the marked 
contrast in their wetness, so to speak. At times, when we 
could not see a ship's length, the air did not behave as if it 
was entirely saturated. The decks of the ship would dry 
after scrubbing, and other wet but exposed objects would 
dry even in the fog. The dust-particles in the air over these 
southern waters were ample to collect all the moisture, and 
more too ; while in the Greenland fogs, condensation went on 
as if there was not dust enough in the air to supply the 
demand. 

The fogs we met with in Vineyard Sound, before and after 
the collision with the schooner Dora M. French, were strik- 
ingly white and opaque, as contrasted with all those encoun- 
tered in the Greenland seas, but were damp rather than wet. 

All the rains observed north of latitude 53° differed from 
the summer rains at home in that they consisted only of small 
drops — mist rather than rain. For example, the heaviest 
rain we had at Sukkertoppen occurred on August 11. Nu- 
merous rills streamed from the rocky heights in small cas- 
cades, and streams poured from the scuppers of the ship, but 
the rain was a fine mist. It seemed strange that such misty 
rain, falling so noiselessly, could possibly wet so fast as this 
did. The same fact was noticed in numerous other rains, 
both in the harbor at Sukkertoppen and outside. In the 
heavy storm in Davis Straits, in which the Miranda was 



ATMOSPHERIC DUST IX THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 157 

abandoned on August 23, and when the barometer fell one inch 
and a half, the rain, although very wetting, was a fine mist. 
This w T as in latitude 61° 15', and perhaps two hundred miles 
from land. Such was the character of all the rains we had 
while in the North, and on our return until just below lati- 
tude 52°, when during the night we had a shower of large 
drops. It was of short duration, but the patter of the big 
drops on the deck told us that we were back again to familiar 
atmospheric conditions. 

The slight range of temperature was also probably a fac- 
tor in the difference in size of the rain-drops as well as in 
the opacity of the fog. In warmer regions, we have not only 
a greater abundance of dust-particles upon which condensa- 
tion may take place, but a greater range of temperature to 
promote rapid condensation. North of latitude 58° the sur- 
face w r aters were below 42° Fahr., and out over the open 
water the air was rarely above 46°. Often the difference be- 
tween the air-temperature and that of the water was not over 
two or three degrees, and during the fogs in Baffin Bay the 
difference was usually less than six degrees, and local patches 
of fog would sometimes form with changes in the air-temper- 
ature of a single degree, or even less. In the fogs met with 
while in and near the ice off Cape Desolation there were sud- 
den and temporary changes of one or two degrees of tempera- 
ture in the air, during which there would be changes in the 
transparency of the misty fog. 

The aspects of the sky and landscape were striking, and I 
think it probable that this produces — unconsciously, of course 
— one of the fascinations of Arctic scenery. The sky was a 
light blue, in the clearest day, and whitish in ordinary clear 
weather ; yet the light was strong, and our professional pho- 
tographer, Mr. Kersting, often remarked on its qualities for 
photography. Some of his views rivalled the best views 
taken in California, where the atmosphere is supposed to be 



158 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

especially favorable for outdoor photography. It is much 
more so than that of the Eastern States, yet, contrasting the 
atmosphere of the three, as to the physical characters, that 
of Greenland stands at the opposite extreme from that of 
California, and our photographs, as a whole, were strikingly 
good. There were nearly a score of cameras on hoard, and 
even the most inexperienced amateurs were brilliantly suc- 
cessful in getting good views. 

During our detention at Sukkertoppen, awaiting the 
arrival of a rescue vessel, I made frequent trips to the sur- 
rounding heights, some of which commanded wide and ex- 
ceedingly grand views. This is considered the boldest and 
most picturesque portion of Western Greenland. The head- 
lands are lofty and precipitous, and the mainland and some 
of the larger islands are studded with pinnacled and inacces- 
sible rocky peaks, furrowed by numerous narrow gorges con- 
taining more or less perpetual snow. The mainland is cut by 
three fiords, which run up the country for from forty to sixty- 
four miles. Beyond these are high and precipitous mountains, 
the higher ones being pinnacles of granite, with the great inte- 
rior snow-cap surrounding them, and coming in grand glaciers 
down through the gaps between them to the fiords. The 
aspect of the region, as seen from the summits back of the 
colony, was impressively grand and striking. 

There was absolutely no softening by blue haze, as we have 
over the landscapes of temperate climes. The sharp, rugged 
peaks rising from the desolate ice and snow of the interior, 
and the rounded, naked rocks nearer the sea, under the cold 
gray light had a scenic aspect very unlike any other land- 
scapes I have ever seen. They had a sublimity of their own, 
which awed while it fascinated. They were indescribably 
impressive, but were not picturesque. The clouds which hung 
about the peaks much of the time were ragged, and had ill- 
defined edges. I saw none of the cumulus masses of cloud 



ATMOSPHERIC DUST IX THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 159 

which constitute such a picturesque feature among the moun- 
tains of temperate and tropical countries. The clouds were 
usually stratus, and when not covering the whole sky had ill- 
defined edges, often fading off into watery mist. 

When not wrapped in clouds or dim in the mist the rocky 
peaks were projected against a cold, gray sky. I have been told 
by travellers who have been frozen up over winter in the Arctic 
seas that as the sun leaves them in the autumn, and before it 
appears in the spring, there are very brilliant red sunset 
cloud-effects, but they were seen but sparingly during our 
visit. We had, however, the beautiful rosy " alpenglow " 
twice at sunset upon the great snow-fields and glaciers. 
It was, however, less pronounced than I have seen it 
on the snowy peaks of Oregon, California, Wyoming, and 
Switzerland. It is probable, however, that in the clearer 
and cooler weather of April and May the colors would be 
stronger. 

Where there was any haze over the Greenland landscape it 
was a gray, watery haze, entirely unlike either the white haze 
sometimes seen over dry deserts or the blue haze seen over 
civilized lands and where there is smoke in the atmosphere. 
There was absolutely none of that blue haze which gives such 
a special charm to our own landscapes, where all the minor 
details are indistinct in the distance, and which produces such 
charming effects of color when the sun is low in the brilliant 
sky, glowing with yellow, orange, or red, as the case may be, 
the shadows of sunset fading from the glowing sky above into 
the indistinctness of the valleys, ending in a flaming red on 
the horizon above the spot where the sun has set. 

We saw smoky haze in Labrador as we looked inland from 
the heights, but it was much fainter than in the regions far- 
ther north, and when we arrived at Sydney, on our return, 
the valley beyond the town was filled with it, the landscape 
fading into indistinctness in the blue distance ; this effect 



160 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

seemed even more striking and beautiful than usual, from the 
contrast with what we had seen in the North. 

The various forms of "ice-blink" and " ice-loom," so 
familiar to Arctic travellers, are also probably due to dust- 
particles or half-condensed vapor, scattering the light re- 
flected to them from ice below the horizon. It is a peculiar 
color or appearance in the air which is above ice. The 
ordinary phases need no description here. We saw one 
little phase, however, which was so peculiar and striking that 
it may be noted. We had. passed a very large berg, and were 
watching it carefully as it dropped astern to see how long it 
could be seen, but its actual disappearance could not be timed. 
A light spot hovered about it before it sank out of sight, and 
for some time after it sank below the horizon tbe place of its 
disappearance was marked by an illuminated spot in the air 
like a segment of a circle or an ellipse resting on the horizon, 
brightest near the water, and fading out from the centre. 

Although not related to atmospheric dust, there is a phase 
of optical meteorology that needs, perhaps, a word. It is 
the mirage noticed by all Arctic travellers. We had our best 
example of that off Newfoundland and Labrador. In these 
regions the fogs occur when the winds are easterly, from the 
south round to the northeast ; but the air clears when the 
wind is westerly or off shore. If it be mild and the air 
warm, then the mirage is likely to appear. July 16 was 
one of the most enjoyable days of the trip. We were steam- 
ing along the northeastern coast of Newfoundland, between 
latitude 49° and 51°. It was a clear day, with a very light 
wind off shore, and at times the air was so calm that 
the sea was almost glassy. The atmosphere was very trans- 
parent, and the sky overhead was brightly blue, becoming 
very pale toward the horizon. The sea-horizon itself was 
very dark, but not sharp ; on the contrary, it was wavy and 
ill-defined, often ragged and changing in outline. We were 



ATMOSPHERIC BUST IK THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 161 

in the great procession of icebergs coming down that coast 
with the cold current. These bergs were exceptionally abun- 
dant and large in 1894, and the effect of the distortions due 
to mirage of those on the horizon was fascinatingly beautiful. 
Distant bergs would be appearing and disappearing. Mar- 
vellous as their shapes are naturally, they were made much 
more so by this optical distortion, now magnified and lifted 
to many times their real height, then flattening out again, 
their wavy and flickering outline — bringing them into weird 
and strange shapes — continually changing in the brilliant sun- 
shine. Sometimes they would fade out of sight, soon to be 
seen again peeping above the dark but capricious horizon, now 
divided into two with a belt of dark water between and then 
coming back to normal form or again disappearing entirely 
below the horizon, where a ripple on the sea showed that local 
belts of light wind broke up the unequally heated layers of air. 

The mirages of these regions are nearly always the reverse 
of those seen on heated deserts, which I have often studied. 
Those are in the cooler air which rests on hotter soil. These 
are due to the warmer air resting on colder water, and the 
most common result is a " looming up/' or bringing things 
above the horizon which would normally be below it. 

This pure, dust-free air and cool temperature were pecul- 
iarly healthful. The hygienic effects were remarked by all 
our party, every one of whom returned in excellent health and 
strength, save one or two cases of minor accidental bruises. 

I await with much interest fuller investigation on the at- 
mospheric dust-phenomena of the Arctic regions. A quanti- 
tative investigation of the relative number of particles, and a 
comparison in this respect with the numbers found in other 
regions, are especially needed. Fuller and more systematic 
observation of the various related phenomena, made under 
other conditions and at other seasons, would be exceedingly 
interesting, and rich in scientific results. 



GLACIAL OBSERVATIONS IN LABRADOR 
AND SOUTHERN GREENLAND. 



BY PROFESSOK G. FREDERICK WRIGHT. 




On crossing Davis Straits from 
Labrador to Greenland one is deep- 
ly impressed with the contrast in 
the scenery of the two countries. 
The coast of Labrador presents 
everywhere a smooth and flowing 
outline against the sky. There 
are no sharp peaks, but every- 
where the contour is subdued and 
graceful in outline. Upon the 
western coast of southern Green- 
land, on the contrary, the pre- 
vailing feature of the landscape, as 
seen from a distance of thirty or forty miles, is that of sharp, 
needle-like peaks, such as would do credit to the high Alps, or 
to the central portion of the Rocky Mountain range, though 
none of them rise more than 4,000 or 5,000 feet above the sea. 
In seeking for the reason of this contrast one is at first 
puzzled by the fact that it is not due to any dissimilarity be- 
tween the character of the rocks in the two regions, for they 
belong to the same age and are essentially alike in all re- 
spects, the prevailing rocks in both instances being gneiss, 
with occasional masses of granite and frequent intersecting 
veins of trap. We must look, therefore, for some other cause 
than the nature of the rocks for explanation of this diversity 
of appearance. 



GLACIAL OBSEKVATION"S. 163 

Due reflection upon the facts, and upon the forces in 
operation adaj)ted to their production, will, however, fur- 
nish a satisfactory and adequate explanation. The flowing, 
graceful outline of the Labrador coast is the result of the hor- 
izontal erosion effected by such a rigid force as is furnished 
by an ice-sheet slowly moving over the surface and planing it 
down to a comparative level, while the coast of Greenland 
shows the signs of having been sculptured predominantly by 
the action of water and other sub-aerial agencies, rather than 
by an all-enveloping ice-sheet ; for water erodes mainly in 
vertical sections, wearing deep, narrow channels at frequent 
intervals, leaving masses of land between the channels to be 
gradually worn by frost and wind and rain into the sharp, 
needle-like peaks characteristic of most high altitudes. 

At first thought it seems improbable that the scenery 
on the coast of Labrador should betray the sculpturing 
power of a glacial ice-sheet more clearly than the coast of 
Greenland does, and the fact is of great significance ; for 
there are no extensive glaciers in Labrador at present, while in 
southern Greenland great glaciers come down to the head of all 
the fiords, and some of them, as near Frederickshaab and Suk- 
kertoppen, reach almost to the open sea ; and everywhere the 
borders of a vast inland ice-sheet, thousands of feet in thick- 
ness, are met from fifteen to sixty miles back from the ocean. 
The question therefore arises with great force, Why is the 
scenery of the coast of Labrador more characteristically gla- 
cial than that of Greenland ? The answer may best be given 
in a general statement arrived at by a number of separate in- 
ferences. Labrador was once more completely enveloped by 
ice than Greenland has ever been. The border of Greenland 
has probably never been completely covered by ice. However 
great the former extension of the glaciers, they were never 
confluent near the border of the sea, but flowed outwards in 
the separate channels now marked oy the deep fiords, and 



164 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

were separated by numerous nunataks, or peaks, which per- 
petually lifted themselves above the ice, subject to the action 
of sub-aerial erosive agencies. If the margin of Greenland 
was ever, like that of Labrador, completely enveloped in ice, 
so as to be planed down to a nearly uniform level, it must 
have been at a period preceding by an enormous interval that 
of the glacial epoch whose evidences are now visible. 

Yet upon penetrating the interior of Greenland to a dis- 
tance of about twenty miles, where the margin free from ice 
is considerably wider than that, one sees before him the same 
characteristic flowing outline of scenery as that which has been 
described in Labrador. Instead of numerous sharp peaks, 
there is the subdued and gracefully rounded contour which 
would be produced by long-continued and general glaciation. 
Here, too, the other signs of a former occupancy by ice appear 
in increasing degree as one gets farther and farther into the in- 
terior. The summits of the higher plateaus above 2,000 feet 
bear the remnants of glaciers which were formerly much more 
extensive, and which even now send occasional projecting 
tongues of ice down to the lower levels, while frequent glaci- 
ated boulders dot the surface after the manner with which we 
are so familiar in the United States. But there is a remark- 
able absence of those extensive moraines and deposits of till 
or boulder clay which characterize the glaciated portions of 
the United States. This absence of extensive glacial deposits, 
characteristic alike of Labrador and of the interior portion of 
the outskirts of Greenland, points to a common cause. 

Both Labrador and these portions of Greenland are so 
near the sources from which the supply of glacial debris has 
been derived, and they have been so long under the glacial 
harrow, that all the accessible loose material has been swept 
away to the margin, where the glacial deposits have been prin- 
cipally made. In both cases this margin of glacial deposition 
is covered by the sea, and hence is not visible. There can be 



GLACIAL OBSERVATIONS. 165 

little doubt that the submerged banks of [Newfoundland are 
covered by deposits of glacial material derived from Labrador, 
just as northern Germany and northeastern Russia are cov- 
ered with the waste from the Scandinavian mountains. If 
the continental plateau surrounding [Newfoundland should 
ever be elevated so as to be again above the sea, it is quite 
probable that a vast population could spread out upon it and 
flourish upon the glacial grist of the Labrador mountains, as 
the southern part of Ontario and the northern part of the 
United States are now rejoicing in the fertility of the Cana- 
dian grist which has been so conveniently spread over them 
by the continental ice-sheet. There has been a remarkable 
movement in Germany recently in the direction of fertilizing 
the soils by grinding up certain rocks to powder and scatter- 
ing it profusely over the surface. Eminent men have written 
to me concerning the feasibility of employing these kinds of 
fertilizers for our own soils. A convincing reply is readily 
made — namely, that nature has already done this for the 
northern part of the United States upon a scale which man 
cannot hope to equal. Every kind of rock from the north 
has been brought into requisition to furnish material for this 
glacial grist in the northern part of the United States, and 
the agriculturist has but to devise ways to extract its richness 
and his success is assured. But this process has left the far 
north barren of agricultural resources, even if the climate 
were favorable. Professor Hellaud estimates that as much as 
two hundred and fifty feet of material has been removed by 
glacial action from the Scandinavian peninsula and deposited 
over the surrounding belt of territory extending into north- 
ern Germany and northwestern Russia. There can be little 
question that corresponding dejDosits around both Labrador 
and Greenland are covered by the waters of the ocean. 

At this point two inevitable questions may best be an- 
swered. First, were the glaciers of Greenland and those 



166 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 

of Labrador ever confluent in Davis Straits, so that there 
was continuous ice between the two regions ? This must be 
answered in the negative ; for the evidence already given of 
the thinness of the ice over the outskirts of Greenland is 
inconsistent with any great extension of it from Greenland 
into Davis Straits, especially as the bottom, a short distance 
from the shore, descends rapidly to a depth of several thou- 
sand feet. This depth, together with the great width, which 
is here about six hundred miles, renders it extremely im- 
probable that ice could ever have been supplied from the 
continent rapidly enough to have filled the whole intervening 
area 

This leads to the second question, relating to the elevation 
of the land at the time of the glacial period. That the land 
on both sides of Davis Straits was much higher before and 
during the glacial period than it is now is shown by the great 
depth of the Greenland. fiords and by the submerged channels 
through the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From the mouth of the 
Saguenay River to the margin of the Atlantic plateau two hun- 
dred or three hundred miles south of Newfoundland there is a 
well-marked deep channel through the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
several hundred feet, and toward the mouth from 1,200 to 
1,500 feet, below the general level of the bottom of the Gulf 
and of the Banks. In other words, if that region should be 
elevated six hundred feet, the whole area covered by the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence and the Banks of Newfoundland would be- 
come dry land, intersected by a canon from 1,200 to 1,500 
feet deep, marking the ancient course of the St. Lawrence on 
its way to the sea. The inference is irresistible that in 
pre-glacial times that area was elevated to a height of from 
1,500 to 2,000 feet; otherwise the erosion of such a channel 
is inconceivable. 

The argument from the fiords in Greenland is of a similar 
nature. Their depth is such as to indicate a former elevation 



GLACIAL OBSERVATION'S. 167 

of the land to a height of several hundred feet at least. As 
they penetrate the interior to a distance, in some instances, 
of seventy-five miles, it would seem clear that the whole area 
must have been above the water-level at one time. In the 
case of the submerged channels through the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence the conditions are such as pretty much to preclude any 
other agency than running water as their producing cause. 
In Greenland, however, it is possible to introduce glaciers as 
the eroding agency in deepening the fiords when the level 
was very much the same as now, in which case we should not 
need to suppose any great former enlargement of the land 
area surrounding Greenland. In any case there is no evi- 
dence of the complete filling up of Davis Straits with land-ice ; 
but, on the contrary, overwhelming evidence against it. 

A more detailed description of my observations upon the 
Greenland coast during the summer of 1894 in the vicinity of 
Sukkertoppen will add considerably to the strength of these 
inferences. Sukkertoppen is in latitude 65° 25', and is the 
largest Eskimo settlement upon the coast, containing about 
four hundred natives, who find in its vicinity most favorable 
haunts for fish and birds, and for seal and reindeer. The 
general distance of the inland ice from the sea is here about 
sixty miles, which is the distance penetrated by Isortok fiord. 
But between Isortok fiord and Kangererdlugsuatsiak, which 
penetrates the outskirts to an equal distance, a projection of 
the inland ice extends to within about fifteen miles of the sea. 

During our stay at Sukkertoppen in August I made two 
expeditions of much importance. First up Isortok fiord to 
about half its length, and again to the projection of the in- 
land ice twenty-five miles north entering Ikamiut fiord. On 
both these expeditions there was abundant evidence that 
glaciers had formerly filled the fiord up certainly to a height 
of about 2,000 feet and extending out to the line of the ocean 
shore. In both Isortok and Ikamiut fiords the glacial 



168 THE LAST CKTTISE OF THE MIKAKDA. 

scratches were very fresh and clear, distinct on all freshly 
exposed surfaces near the water-level, while upon the south 
side of Ikamiut fiord, facing the north, the glacial groovings 
parallel to the axis of the fiord were very distinct up to a 
height of 2,000 feet. Upon the side of the fiord facing the 
sun the alternations of heat and cold had caused the faces of 
the rock to crumble to such an extent that the markings 
were nearly all effaced ; but upon the south side they were 
still very distinct, and could be traced up the fiord to the 
front of the retreating glacier. 

Now that the main glacier has retreated for a distance of 
about eight miles up the whole length of the Ikamiut fiord, 
local glaciers are creeping down the flanks of the mountains 
at right angles to the former movement ; and one glacier of 
considerable size is moving directly toward the front of the 
main glacier as it impinges upon the eastern side end of the 
mountain, thus showing how complicated are the movements 
accompanying both the advance and the retreat of the great 
ice-sheet, and accounting for the different directions in which 
glacial scratches often cross the same rock surface. It is 
evident that along this fiord from which the ice has retreated 
the local glaciers are furrowing and scratching the flanks of 
the mountain at right angles to those which were produced 
when the fiord was full of ice. 

The glacier coming in to the head of Ikamiut fiord bore 
upon its back an enormous medial moraine, fed chiefly by 
branches from the north. This extended back as far as the 
eye could see, or until it was concealed by the freshly fallen 
snows. .For the first five miles back from the front this 
moraine was fully half a mile wide, and contained many 
angular boulders from fifteen to twenty feet in diameter. 
Mingled with these, and with the sand, mud, and gravel 
accompanying them, were numerous perfectly rounded pebbles 
a few inches in diameter, showing the vigor of the superglacial 



GLACIAL OBSEKVATIONS. 169 

streams which had doubtless borne them along from the 
distant interior. With so large a moraine upon the ice one 
would expect to find corresponding moraines in the area from 
which the ice had melted off; but their absence is readily 
accounted for by the great depth of the fiord, and from the 
fact that the moraine was very nearly in the middle of the 
glacier, which was here about five mile wide. The fiord is 
capacious enough to swallow all the material which the glacier 
has vomited into it. 

Some years ago, when Nordenskiold visited the inland ice, 
a good deal was said about the dust which he found scattered 
over the surface, and which he surmised might be of meteoric 
origin. Dr. Hoist, however, found similar material collected 
in considerable thickness over the margin of the ice all along 
southern Greenland, and ascertained, upon analysis, that it 
was simply dust blown from the mountains to the outskirts, 
thus furnishing a more prosaic explanation of the phe- 
nomenon. The fact that Nansen found nothing like kryo- 
konite in the interior of Greenland confirms the conclu- 
sion of Hoist, as did our own observations upon the Ikamiut 
glacier, which was covered with this dust, as we estimated, to 
a depth of a quarter of an inch, while in places it had been 
washed into hollows of the ice, filling them up to a depth of 
several inches. 

Another evidence of the former extension of the glaciers 
to the margin of the ocean appeared in numerous light-col- 
ored granite boulders found at Sukkertoppen and other places, 
where the rocks were of an entirely different character. 

One of the most puzzling things in southern Greenland is 
the existence of the reindeer ; for it is difficult to see how the 
animal could reach those grazing-grounds under present con- 
ditions. It is not known that these animals make extensive 
journeys on the inland ice, or, indeed, that they venture upon 
it at all. Yet this projection of the inland ice that conies 



170 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

down to Isortok fiord would seem completely to isolate 
the grazing-grounds of the south from those of the north. 
The same difficulty arises in a still greater degree north 
of Umenak fiord, where for hundreds of miles there is now 
no margin of land uncovered with ice along the whole cir- 
cuit of Melville Bay from TJpernavik to Cape York ; yet 
these animals are found in great numbers north of Cape York 
and all along the western coast south of Upernavik. They 
seem to flourish upon the abundant mosses and creeping 
herbage which grow in the protected nooks and crannies of 
all that inhospitable region, furnishing the most dainty food 
and the warmest of clothing to the hunters and their 
families. 

The only way in which this distribution of the reindeer 
can be accounted for would seem to be by supposing that at a 
former time there was a broader and more continuous margin 
of land free from ice than there is now, and that subsequently 
this border was diminished to its present width and with its 
present interruptions, isolating different herds of the animal. 
There are two suppositions according to which this former 
enlargement and subsequent limitations of the border may 
have been produced. During a milder period the ice may 
have at one time retreated farther into the interior than now, 
allowing free passage along the whole border, and then at a 
subsequent time advanced again, as it evidently has done even 
much beyond its present limits. 

The more likely explanation is that in the general elevation 
of the northern region which preceded the glacial epoch 
period a considerable border of the shallow ocean-bed was 
lifted above the surface of the water, affording extensive pas- 
turage and free passageway all down the coasts of Greenland 
and of Labrador, thus facilitating the distribution of both 
animals and plants to the isolated localities in southern Green- 
land where they are found, and making it possible also for the 



GLACIAL OBSEKVATIONS. 171 

various animals and plants to reach K"ewf oundland from the 
shores of the neighboring continent. 

The mystery of Greenland and of the great ice age does not 
grow less as we extend our study of the facts, both past and 
present. When one treads the solitary wastes of the vast ice- 
fields of Greenland, they seem the very image of firmness and 
immobility ; yet he has but to put his ear down to the surface 
to hear the busy hum of innumerable infinitesimal forces 
which are all conspiring to produce in their ultimate effects 
most startling results ; and when once he returns to the head 
of the fiord, where the great glacier enters the sea, there is 
the most startling evidence of the irresistible power of these 
cumulative forces 



THE GREENLANDERS. 



BY FREDERICK A. COOK, M.D. 



The aborigines of nearly all parts of the Arctic regions 
know no other name for themselves than " Inuit," the people. 
We call them Eskimos, or Huskies, but these names are as 
incorrect as the term Indians applied to our own wild prede- 
cessors. I shall here consider only a branch of the Eskimo 
stem, those who inhabit the Danish possessions of Greenland, 
a race of aboriginies who have intermingled and intermar- 
ried freely with Scandinavians for nearly two centuries. This 
hopeless mixture has produced a hybrid population to which 
we can properly give the name of Greenland ers. 

The Greenland ers are in every way inferior to the primi- 
tive stock, isolated hordes of which still remain beyond Mel- 
ville Bay and on the east coast. In round numbers, the 
population is about 10,000, and for the past twenty-five years 
it has not materially increased or decreased. 

Their present territory extends from Cape Farewell to the 
base of Melville Bay, on the west coast, and from Cape Fare- 
well to Angmasalik on the east coast. The topography of 
Greenland is such that only the coastal fringe is habitable, 
and since the inhabitants obtain food and clothing principally 
from the denizens of the sea, their habitations are not far 
removed from the bleak and rocky shores of the relentless 
Arctic seas. There are several large indentations along the 
coast — arms of the sea, termed fiords — some a hundred or more 
miles in length, the shores of which usually have a fair share 
of population distributed over favored spots where game is 
abundant. 



THE GBEEKLANDEKS. 173 

The climate of Greenland varies greatly with each local- 
ly, tin the immediate vicinity of the oj)en sea, the atmos- 
phere is almost constantly charged with an abundance of cold 
moisture. Dense fogs are common throughout the year ; but 
near the heads of the bays and fiords the opposite atmospheric 
condition prevails. There the winds are mainly from the 
ice-covered interior, and have been freed of moisture by cold ; 
hence dry air, few fogs, and, in summer, a very agreeable 
temperature. The climate, on the whole, is by no means 
disagreeable to Caucasians. Indeed, some regions above 
Disco Inland would form most excellent sites for sanitariums ; 
for the effect upon nervous patients is marvellous. The 
natives, however, are badly fed, poorly clothed, and physi- 
cally ruined by the misdirected charity of the Danish Govern- 
ment. 

Contrary to the general belief, the people of Danish 
Greenland are less able to withstand the rigors of the Arctic 
atmosphere than are Scandinavians. Their wild elements of 
life have been largely supplanted by ill-adapted, semi-civil- 
ized habits which can only invite disease and destroy the 
people. 

The soil, when it exists, is fairly fertile, and well moistened. 
In parts of the southern valleys a profusion of grass is found, 
and occasionally a small patch of stunted forest of birch and 
willows and other hardy trees, which grow to a height of from 
one to six feet. The agricultural j)ossibilities are extremely 
limited, but there are many thousands of acres which would 
undoubtedly yield a fair harvest if properly cultivated. Next 
to nothing has been done by the Greenlander in this direc- 
tion, and there does not seem to have been any effort to aid 
him. Indeed, the most fertile lands in southern Greenland 
are almost depopulated. 

The animal life on land and water is rapidly vanishing. 
The wholesale slaughter of seals on the coast of Newfound- 



174 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

land and Labrador is partly responsible for the present scarcity 
of seals ; but the disappearance of reindeer, foxes, and bears, 
and the diminishing bird life, are due to the introduction of fire- 
arms, and the indiscriminate destruction that always follows 
improved methods of killing game. With a fair amount of 
cautian, there can be no doubt that even the present wild 
animal life of Greenland, and the adjoining waters, would 
supply a much greater population. If, however, the people 
were taught to domesticate reindeer, blue foxes, and bears, or 
import other fur-bearing animals, and carefully herd them, 
there would be no limit to the animal life that might thrive 
and multiply. 

The Greenlanders encountered on the voyage of the 
Miranda were very fair specimens of the Danish Greenland 
population, their physical characteristics ranging from a 
typical Eskimo to a true Norseman. They varied in height 
from 4 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 7 inches, the average man being 
about 5 feet 5 inches high, and the woman 5 feet 2 inches. 
The pure-blooded Eskimo is about three inches shorter. 

To the eye of the observer, the Eskimo is at once classed 
in a racial scale midway between the American Indian and 
the Asiatic Mongolian, and this is really his true position. 
Farther acquaintance and more careful observation will lead 
an investigator into many puzzling moods, but he will always 
look at the Eskimos as a branch of the Mongolian stem. Their 
skeletons are the reverse of those of the negro. Their bones 
present ill-defined muscular ridges, short appendages, partic- 
ularly small hands and feet. The skull is short and broad, 
the forehead very slightly retreating, the chin mildly pro- 
truding, and the molar bones are prominent. The nose is 
diminutive. 

In studying a nude Greenlander, one is first impressed 
with the abbreviated appendages which the bony formation 
suggests, a great deficiency of muscular outline, and a very 



THE GEEENLAXDEES. 175 

prominent abdomen. The men's skin is deficient in hair-fol- 
licles, and the women's is almost as barren as a bald head. 
The color of the skin varies from that of a fairly dark Cauca- 
sian to that of a Malay. The average Greenlander is perhaps 
darker than the true Eskimo. The skin has an amber or a 
light-brown tinge, with a deep-seated cardinal flush, easily 
sent to the surface of all parts of the body. Both sexes have 
very coarse and straight coal-black hair. To this rule there 
are very few exceptions, and they indeed are very odd — men 
with blond hair, blue eyes, and a dark skin, and to add to the 
unnatural aspect, they usually have light beards. They are 
unsightly and repulsive, but the few women of the same 
blond type are often remarkably beautiful. The prevailing 
face is broad, round, and beardless. 

The chest of the child is fairly well developed, but that 
of the adult early loses its elasticity. The muscles of the 
trunk are very highly developed, particularly the erector 
muscles. Both men and women have great ridges of mus- 
cular tissue on each side of the spine. The body is enveloped 
in heavy integument, and considerable fatty tissue in pros- 
perous seasons, but in this respect they have an inferior 
blanket of fat when compared with the most northern Es- 
Kimo. 

Physiologically, the Greenlanders are the victims of cir- 
cumstances : when food is abundant, nutrition is excellent 
and digestion is good ; but when game is scarce, they seem to 
consume their own tissue, and become thin in proportion to 
the amount of fasting. They possess a remarkable ability to 
subdue hunger, and I have seen men and women subsist on 
next to nothing for a month and remain happy and contented. 
Their reproductive functions are good, but the infant mortal- 
ity is great. 

The prevailing maladies are principally the results of 
Danish sins, the frightful inroads of present diseases being 



176 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

quite recent ; but their far-reaching effect bids fair to destroy 
the race. To the credit of the Danish officials it should be 
said, that they have tried nobly to prevent the introduction of 
foreign infection, but the result has been disastrous. The 
chief cause of death and the increasing fires of misery are the 
germs of tuberculosis. One physician told me that about 
two-thirds of the population were thus afflicted in one form or 
another, and according to my own observations, certainly the 
majority were consumptive. To show that the climate is not 
responsible for this, we have only to refer to the isolated 
Eskimo tribes, among whom the disease is unknown. Pleu- 
risy, pneumonia, and catarrh are common, and all the zymotic 
diseases have prevailed. Skin diseases and disorders of diges- 
tion are very uncommon, while victims of gunshot wounds 
can be found in nearly every settlement. Broken and frozen 
limbs, death from land-slides, snow-slides, and drowning 
are frequent. Venereal diseases are almost unknown. The 
average longevity is very low, but Greenlanders who have 
reached eighty or ninety years are occasionally found. 

The most interesting psychological characteristics are lack 
of common traits of character, a neutral religious aspect, 
though taught Christianity for more than a century and a 
half ; great amity and compassion, a lack of courage, and an 
almost entire absence of hate and vengeance. Conscience, if 
it exists at all, is extremely elastic. The intellectual faculties 
are poorly developed, except such as enter directly into their 
peculiar life. Attention and observation are often found 
in abnormal proportions. The people are good imitators, 
and quick in making deductions and conclusions, but their 
imagination, contrary to what might be expected from a 
people living through long months of darkness, is very poor. 
The Greenlander's general disposition is congenial, friendly, 
honest, and affectionate, but his self-esteem is very low. 

The language is a somewhat modified Eskimo tongue, and 



THE GKEENLANDERS. 177 

is of the Anglutinated type. Its construction, though it 
seems at first sight simple, is extremely complicated. Many 
Danes who have married native women and have spent a 
lifetime in Greenland have only gained a working knowledge 
of the native speech. The difficulty in studying it is centred 
in the Eskimos' peculiar methods of constructing and com- 
pounding words which will convey an active meaning ; hence, 
each word is a complete sentence, or a very large part of it, or 
perhaps a single word and a series of gestures convey a lengthy 
idea. 

The question of language is a very long one, and from a 
scientific standpoint is very interesting ; hut it is difficult to 
analyze it without an overwhelming mass of technical details. 
The language is well adapted to the peculiar needs of the 
Eskimo people, hut wanting in words to express advanced 
sentiments. It is rich and often extremely unique in expres- 
sions for seal-catching, dog-driving, bluhber-eating, and animal 
sentiments, but quite deficient in definite expressions or 
accurate comparisons for things in general. Everything is 
either plenty or scarce, big or little, very great or insignificant. 
There seems to be no intermediate scale. 

Morals are largely matters of convenience : one rarely en- 
counters very wicked natives, and if judged from our stand- 
point, even more rarely very good natives. They are usually 
peaceful and mild-tempered, but jealousy or an infringement 
upon personal liberty arouses their worst passions. "When a 
person behaves so badly that the community can no longer 
tolerate his presence he is forbidden to enter the huts, can- 
not share the food, or hold any intercourse with the others. 
Nevertheless, so long as he threatens no bodily harm, and 
displays no murderous intent, little attention is paid to him. 
He is ignored, and becomes a social outcast, which in this 
state of society is worse than death ; it is the most effective 
punishment that an Eskimo can receive. 



178 THE LAST CKUTSE OF THE MIKANDA. 

The virtues of the men are very much magnified at the 
expense of the women, and the wife regards her husband as 
her superior lord and master. Few men are jealous of their 
wives, but most wives are jealous of their husbands. The 
natural inbred admiration for men causes the women to treat 
all men affectionately. In this respect they resemble Oriental 
women, anticipating man's every desire, studying very care- 
fully his needs and his follies. Chastity is quite unknown, 
and fidelity is uncommon ; men treat the failings of the 
women with indifference — wives are exchanged and new 
attachments are made as a most natural and necessary func- 
tion. Both men and women are prized not for beauty, phys- 
ical force, or wealth, but for their ingenuity in the arts of 
life. There is among them a large idle and non-productive 
class, but this is not criminal or dangerous, as is the rule 
among us. 

The product of the hunt furnishes the natives with food, 
fuel, and clothing. The Danes supply them with some un- 
necessaries, such as tobacco, coffee, sugar, salt, superannuated 
biscuits, cloth, etc. ; but the people would be much happier 
and healthier without these things. This is particularly true 
of tobacco and coffee, for there seems to be something in the 
atmosphere which forbids the use of these stimulants and 
makes them quite as destructive to ambition, respectability, 
and health as alcohol does among our working classes. 

At their feasts there is much eating and merrymaking, but 
the time devoted to them is brief, and the fun never ends in 
fighting ; but there is sometimes an exchange of wives, and 
more or less free love. Their life is essentially one of period- 
ical wealth and poverty, of boundless engorgement with alter- 
nate starvation, but they move about from day to day, and 
from month to month, with no care for the future- — happy 
alike in famine and in luxury. 

My companions, Messrs. Walsh, DewelL and others, have 



THE GREENLANDERS. 179 

mentioned other interesting traits of these people, which they 
have observed in their own way. The natives, like the land- 
scape, appeal differently to every imagination. The unique 
and quaint little characters, and the bewildering, strong, 
relentless scenes, incite the mind, but throw it back upon 
itself. They inspire the imagination, without satisfying its 
curiosity. Every intruder into Greenland solitudes, and every 
student of the people and the animals, has found the life and 
the air charged with interest, and every inquiring mind has 
been filled with an endless mirage of fascinating perspectives. 
There is here a clear view of primeval nature, seen through 
the crystal lens of rarefied air. We have a clear understand- 
ing of prehistoric life, born of an easier study of simple nature, 
in its wildest elements. The method and the time may be 
forgotten, but the inspiration and the place will ever remain 
in our memory. 

It is to be hoped that the future will bring new arts, an 
extermination of diseases, and a better adaptability to the 
stormy conditions, to these unfortunate people. They cannot 
long remain isolated from civilization, because they are 
perched on the shores of the world's most interesting land- 
scape, which will always be an increasing point of interest. 
The coastal fringe of Greenland, with its people and its life, 
is the most sublime and magnificent cyclorama of nature ; its 
superb mountains, towering terraced cliffs, chaotic abysses, 
great sheets of spotless snow, endless stretches of glacial ice, 
and numberless silvery threads of winding waters have no 
equal. It is a region of incandescence in summer and glow- 
ing blackness in winter. It fills the soul of man with awful 
despair and violent delights, extremes which, like the coastal 
mountains, are separated by great gaps. 



A GREENLAND CEMETERY. 



BY JAMES D. DEWELL. 




With Melville Bay as the ob- 
jective point, I boarded the steam- 
ship Miranda July 7. 1894. After 
many delays caused, by fog, col- 
lision with an iceberg, and striking 
a hidden reef, we anchored in the 
little harbor of Sukkertoppen 
(Sugar-loaf), Greenland, in early 
August. Sukkertoppen is a set- 
tlement of four hundred. Eskimos, 
under the Danish flag, a race with- 
out a history or a nationality, a 
people of Asiatic caste, whose pro- 
genitors were probably from a warmer clime. How came this 
peculiar people to inhabit a frozen region can only be sur- 
mised. The belief is that in ages past their ancestors were 
forced north by tribal wars, probably before the date, of the 
English Channel, and 
thence through some 
emergency reached 
the north coast of 
Greenland, when that 
portion of the earth's 
surface was more tem- 
perate than now. As 
the cycles of time 
rolled along, and the 
ice-fiend claimed pos- No . i,_ C emetery looking north. 




A GREEXLAXD CEMETERY. 



181 



session of all that is now known as the great ice-cap, this remnant 
of a once important trine worked their way down the coast to 
Davis Straits, where they now struggle in poverty for existence. 
While waiting for relief, a matter of two weeks, we exam- 
ined the settlement and its surroundings. My first thought 




NO. 2.— CEMETERY LOOKING SOUTH. 

was, in case of death where might we be buried ? but in any 
event I desired to see the place where the Sukkertoppeners 
buried their dead. Their method of burial is not as they 
would have it if living in a more favored clime, but is caused 
by the conditions of climate and surroundings. Disposition 
of the dead has been from remote times mostly a grave sub- 
ject. The ancients had a way of embalming and depositing 
their dead in tombs ; hence the mummies. The origin of 
mummification in Egypt has been much discussed, but it has 
been proved that the preservation of the human body was 
deemed essential to the corporeal resurrection of the dead. 



182 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

Cremation in a rude form among certain other ancient peoples 
was also practised. To-day in India some deposit their dead 
in the water, and the Parsees leave their dead on the roof of 
a mausoleum or chapel, where the cormorants or birds of 

prey eat the 
flesh from the 
corpse. In other 
portions of the 
globe the dead 
are placed i n 
trees or on poles. 
It remains for 
the poor Eski- 
mos of Green- 
land to show to 
the civilized 
world that the 
dead may be 
buried without 
even digging 
a hole in the 

No. 3.— OPENING A GRAVE. -, 

ground. 
In Greenland, cremation, or earth-covering, or embalming, 
is utterly impossible, and, owing to the climate, quite unne- 
cessary. The views of the cemetery at Sukkertoppen which 
accompany this article were photographed by the writer in 
August, 1894. No. 1 represents the cemetery looking north 
up the fiord, with the great ice-cap and snow-mountains in the 
distance, forty miles away or more. No. 2 shows the ceme- 
tary looking south toward Davis Straits. It is a large plot 
in a canon, the rock projections exhibiting deep glacial 
marks. No. 3 shows a party opening graves to collect speci- 
mens for scientific purposes. No. 4 shows wooden enclosures, 
and No. 5 the Lutheran church. All of the Eskimos south 




A GREENLAND CEMETEKY. 



183 



of Melville Bay are Lutherans, having been Christianized 
many decades ago by Danish missionaries. I found that they 
were poor in all things except good nature, and were espe- 
cially poor as to a suitable ground whereupon to deposit their 
dead, there being no soil or vegetation in all that section. 
Our two weeks' stay gave us ample opportunity to visit the 
natives in their homes, which are simply squalid huts, but no 
chance to see a funeral. However, I visited the cemetery, 
and found that as there are no trees there can be no wood, 
and consequently, no coffins. The only wood is either 
brought from Copenhagen or caught from the drift. The 




a fi . I • * i ' • 





No. 4.— WOODEN ENCLOSURES. 



dead, wrapped in sealskin, are simply laid on the surface of 
the rocks. (Hair seal is the mainstay of the natives : skin 
for clothes, flesh for food, fat for light and heat.) The body 
u then covered to the depth of perhaps ten inches with moss 



184 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 




scraped from the sides of a friendly rock, over which are 
mounded stones of various sizes to keep the body from wild 
beasts, and serve as a monument. In examining illustration 
~No. 3 the reader will observe that the graves are simply 

, stone mounds. We found in 

■+■ '; all of the old graves only skulls, 

! securing five in good condition 

/;% \ in one mound, and no other 

/JspS ; bones. A fine collection was 

siPl gathered, but it went down 

with the Miranda. 

There are exceptions to the 
average mound, as may be 
: noted by illustra- 
tion 4. The Danes, 
who are in control 
of all the Greenland 
coast behrw Melville 
Bay, have a wooden 
enclosure surround- 
ing their graves, the 
wood being brought 
from Denmark; and 
i woo den crosses 
mark the graves of 
the more favored or 
better portion of the 
Eskimos. All the other graves, filled with the poor, 
simple children of the frozen north, have no other monu- 
ment than a heap of stones, which in a later day is 
overturned by some explorer in search of human frames 
in the interest of science. This brief article cannot give 
the reader my thoughts fully as I contemplated this God's 
acre. Here are the bones of human beings, some of 



No. 5.— LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



A GREENLAND CEMETERY. 185 

them, perhaps, descendants of kings from southern climes in 
centuries past, and beyond the memory or history of the liv- 
ing. It was noticeable that the mounds exhumed brought to 
light mostly skulls, furnishing evidence of antiquity, as being 
probably of those who died before the Lutheran missionaries 
landed here. Yet the method of burial remains as before, 
even though the present generation is blessed with religious 
rites. The people on the western coast below Melville Bay 
are all nominally Christians, and dispose of their dead in the 
same manner as at Sukkertoppen. 

Tt has been frequently asked, "Why do the Eskimos 
remain in the frozen region ?" The answer is plain and 
simple. They know not of the outside world, and withal 
have neither the desire nor facilities to leave their bleak 
and desolate habitation. To bring such a race to a warmer 
climate and to civilization would insure its entire extinction. 
The future of this side-tracked race can only be imagined. 
My opinion is that ere many decades it will become extinct. 



THE ESKIMOS' TEETH, AND OTHER NOTES. 



BY K. 0. STEBBHSTS, D.D.S. 




To visit the far north., for the 
purpose of studying the character 
of the Eskimos, I joined Dr. Cook's 
Arctic expedition of 1894. 

Although our vessel was aban- 
boned at sea, and all our baggage 
and curios, such as skin and bone 
trinkets, clothing, made by the 
natives of furs and raw hide ; eider- 
down from the duck, and other 
bird skins, together with imple- 
ments of the chase, the kayak, 
oomiak, and sledge- snowshoes, etc., 
were all lost, the memory of those curious little people is 
fresh in our minds., and not likely to be obliterated by time. 
Nor can we forget the grand mountains of rock, void of earth 
and shrub, the beautiful fiords, dotted here and there with 
many islands, mere rocky peaks, penetrating from the fear- 
ful depths below; the eternal ice-cap of that glacial continent, 
with its mighty rivers of ice, forcing their way down through 
the rocky canons, depositing great masses of ice in the fiords, 
with a crash and splash that can be heard for miles. 

The waters of the fiords seem to afford a great quantity of 
nutritious seaweed and small fish, upon which feed the millions 
of birds — gulls, ducks, and geese. The birds nest so close 
together along the crags of the rocks that they look like 
patches of snow. 



THE ESKIMOS* TEETH, A5TD OTHEE XOTES. 187 

The Eskimos are very fond of eggs, and will sometimes 
lay in a supply for the long Arctic night. This is done by 
stripping the secretions out of the gut of a seal and refilling 
with the eggs, which they break and pour in, tying up the end 
of the gut. It resembles a gigantic frankfurter, and freezes 
solid when the cold weather sets in. The natives break off 
bits with their teeth, swallowing them uncooked with a relish. 
While camping out on the moss-covered rocky banks of a 
river which runs into one Of the fiords, I caught with one lit- 
tle artificial fly two hundred and twenty salmon-trout, vary- 
ing in length from six to eighteen inches, landing one hun- 
dred and sixty-two in one day from a pool formed in the bend 
of the river, beyond which the water ran very swiftiy. Al- 
lowing the fly to disappear in several feet of water, I found 
the fish to be quite game, as often a small one would make 
you think a ten-pounder had taken hold. All hands ate the 
fish, which were fried in a skillet over an oil-stove, with 
great relish, except Dr. Cramer, who did not care for fish, and 
as we were short of bread and limited to one piece, I gladly 
forfeited my portion in favor of the Doctor, and filled in 
on fish. 

While returning to Sukkertoppen in an old, leaky boat, 
loaded with the tents, cooking utensils, and camp traps, 
together with three Eskimos to row while I handled the tiller, 
I discovered that a few crackers, my supply of provender, had 
become soaked in dirty bilge- water. After sitting in a cramped 
position for sixteen hours, cold, stiff, and damp, from the 
spray of the waves, which were tossing our boat around in a 
lively manner, I was getting pretty hungry, but could not 
make up my mind to tackle the dirty crackers. Presently I 
noticed one of the Eskimos eating raw salmon that had been 
cleaned and partially dried on the rocks before leaving camp. 
It was of a rich color, and looked very tempting. I asked 
for a piece. He pulled out a salmon, or rather half of one, 



188 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

from an old filthy sealskin, which is a garment worn by the 
Eskimos in stormy weather and used as a travelling-bag when 
off duty. I trailed the fish overboard (which caused my com- 
panion to smile), and then let it dry, and began to pick at it. 
It was not bad ; in fact, I thought it very good before I had 
eaten the entire piece (about three pounds), and realized how 
easy it would be to fall into the habit of eating the uncooked 
food as the Eskimos do. 

Before leaving New York I purchased ninety dozen Seed's 
dry plates for my camera from E. W. Newcomb & Co., and 
twenty boxes of their developing powders. On our trip north, 
in Labrador and Greenland, I had exposed three hundred 
and ninety-two plates and developed them on shipboard, mak- 
ing a dark room of our stateroom. 

The loss of these plates, of course, I regret very much ; bul 
the greatest loss to me was the casts I had taken, twenty-eight 
in number, of the Eskimo teeth, from childhood to old age. 
Duplicates of these casts I expected to place with others 
I have in the National Medical Museum, at Washington, 
D. C, as there they could always have been referred to in the 
scientific study of the teeth. 

Years ago it was reported by sailors that the Eskimos had 
double teeth all round — that is, the front teeth looked the 
same as the back ones. It did not take me long to discover 
the reason of this report. Upon observation, as a dentist, I 
ascertained that the incisor teeth, also the cuspids and bicus- 
pids, were worn off blunt. As these teeth were large and 
prominent, they did not look unlike molar teeth. 

The older natives live entirely on fish and flesh uncooked, 
and they do not chew their food, but swallow it like a dog. 
This accounts for the way their teeth, as a rule, articulate, 
square on the end of the incisor teeth, the molar teeth not 
being used at all as masticators. In preparing bird and other 
skins, the natives chew or work the skins between their front 



THE ESKIMOS* TEETH, AND OTHER NOTES. 189 

teeth, sucking out the oil, tearing off bits of flesh and fat, 
and making the skin very soft and pliable. As their teeth 
are rather soft, more like ivory in color and texture, the 
manipulating of the skins wears them off a great deal. Very 
little decay was observed in the mouths of the original natives. 
The present generation of Greenlanders, or Danish Eskimos, 
since the introduction of the cook-stove and breadstuffs by 
the Danish Government, cook most of their food. Their teeth 
are more brittle, and the incisor teeth are not worn off so 
much, for their molar teeth are used to masticate the cooked 
food, while the aborigines subsisted entirely on raw food. 
Their upper incisor teeth project over the lower ones. Decay 
was observed in the six-year or first molar teeth, while not a 
sign of decay was discovered in any other teeth of the same 
mouth. 

Some of the present generation are also fond of raw food 
as well as cooked. "While fishing up the fiord, a little fellow 
asked if he could eat one of the fish I had caught. I gave 
him one just taken off my hook : he held it by the head, bit 
off a piece and swallowed it, then another, until the fish 
stopped wriggling and he had eaten or swallowed the whole. 

The eyes of the women resembled those of the Chinese. 
They do their hair up very tightly on the top of their head, 
and always wear it in the same way, from childhood. This 
draws the skin very tight over the temples, and as they 
squint at the glare of the sun during the long Arctic day, 
their eyes grow on a slant. The men have small, sharp round 
eyes, and their hair hangs long and loose about the head 
and face. 



THE FLORA OF SOUTH GREENLAND. 



BY SAMUEL P. OETH. 




On the bare rocks and bleak hills 
of the far north everything that has 
life is of peculiar interest. The 
beauties of the Arctic flora can no- 
where be surpassed in daintiness 
and exquisite tintings. There is no 
useless flaunting of colors or gaudi- 
ness, but a pure, transparent tint 
which brush cannot reproduce. 

There are several circumstances 
which combine to make the floral 
life of Greenland very interesting and 
simple. The short summer .makes 
it necessary for all the species to bloom at one time, there 
being practically no succession of flowers. The soil is shallow, 
thus affording little opportunity for sprouting. The pure 
atmosphere, free from dust, contributing so much to Arctic 
landscape and sunset, tells also on the pure colors of the 
flowers. The long day and very short night of the summer 
make a double share of the sun's actinic rays possible to the 
plants. This accounts for the rapid growth of vegetation. 
All these circumstances create the beautiful delicate forms 
which so surprised us all on our mountain climbings. 

Everywhere along the coast lichens and mosses share their 

fcints with the landscape. The peculiar dull-red glow of the 

islands and rocks is caused by a moss-like fungus covering the 

ocks everywhere. Farther in the interior, lichens thrive 



THE FLOEA OF SOUTH GREENLAND. 101 

in myriad species. Never before had I seen such a profusion 
of fungi as on those cold Greenland rocks. In the pools 
of the valleys mosses thrive most luxuriantly. Especially 
beautiful is the sphagnum, with its lighter tints, growing 
witli dark-red varieties in the crystal pools of mountain 
streams. 

But the phanerogams are the most interesting to the or- 
dinary visitor. Nowhere can the persistence of life be more 
closely studied than in these bleak regions. Wherever there 
is an inch of soil, in every crack or crevice, thrives a plant. 
From the deep valley to the snow -line, nature has prepared a 
succession of surprises for the flower-lover. In the lowlands, 
pink saxifrages and yellow buttercups thrive with our own 
dwarf cornel (Cornus canadensis) and the pretty gold-foil 
(Coptis trifolia). The grass plots are dotted with the golden 
Arctic dandelion (Taraxacum arcticum). Fringing the hill- 
sides, grow the forests of willows and birches (Betula nara). 
The willow is the largest Arctic shrub. Several varieties 
abound, all common, all trailing around the ground or over 
rocks. The largest one I measured was three-quarters of an 
inch in diameter and seven feet high, including four feet of 
roots. With the willows and dandelions grows the common 
polygonum, perhaps the most abundant of Arctic plants, and 
the banks of the streams are lined with chickweed ( Cerastiuv ) 
which, in all of its several varieties, has exceptionally large 
flowers. 

Farther up the mountain-side, in the lighter soil, beauti- 
ful red primroses and delicate bluebells greet one, while in 
sandy spots the gorgeous red stonecrop (Seclum rhodiola) 
presents a startling contrast to the usual blues and whites. 
This stonecrop is the most extravagantly colored flower of the 
North. It is often seen clinging to the perpendicular rocks, 
hundreds of feet above the water-line, as you row along the 
fiords. 



192 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIKANDA. 

The blueberry was perhaps the most welcome plant found. 
I saw here, bud, blossom, green and ripe fruit, all on one bush. 
It is scraggy and low, but the ripe berries tasted so civilized ! 
In all books of Arctic travel one reads so much of the Arctic 
poppy, with its flaunting yellow petals. Naturally I searched 
for the plant, which is so abundant farther north, but 
I found only one plant, with a bare seed capsule, the petals 
having fallen off. 

Rarely one finds a low juniper with green berries, the 
climate being adverse to the ripening of the fruit. Grasses 
are confined to a few species. A small, pretty festuca is the 
most common, making a pretty lawn on every level plot, and 
often appearing in feathery tufts in the crevices of the rocks. 
A large, barley -like grass, growing along the sandy beaches, is 
the largest grass found. It grows about two feet high. 

Of special interest is the angelica, thriving luxuriantly in 
the ravines and lowlands, in sheltered places. It is the only 
vegetable known to the Eskimo's palate, and is gathered in 
large quantities, but never preserved for winter use. It grows 
about eighteen inches high, and has the peculiar flavor which 
characterizes so many umbelliferae and makes them a favorite 
dish with us. 

There are but few varieties of ferns, all growing in 
sheltered places, behind rocks. The commonest is a pteris, 
and occasionally one sees an ophiaglassum and aspidium. 

It was intensely interesting to note the gradual change of 
flowers as we stopped at various places along the coast. Our 
own flora was little modified at Cape Breton — only the flowers 
were about three weeks later than in southern New York. 
Newfoundland added several new species, including the pretty 
forget-me-not, while Labrador's flora was entirely new, and 
quite introductory to the Greenland flora. 

Of the Labrador plants, none of us will forget the " cur- 
lew-berry " wnich grew everywhere so abundantly (found in 



THE FLORA OF SOUTH GREENLAND. 193 

Greenland also), and the " bake-apples" which so refreshed 
ns on our homeward journey when we stopped at Punch Bowl. 
As the collections were all lost, it is impossible to give an 
accurate list of the plants collected in Greenland, though I had 
prepared a list of those found in Labrador. A safe estimate 
made from my notes is the following : Phanerogams, eighty, 
including five graminae and ten cyperaceae. Of the pteri- 
dophytes, I found one equisetum and three filices — making a 
total of ninty-eight plants, excluding the mosses, fungi, and 
lichens, of which there are many dozens of species. The most 
complete works on the flora of South Greenland are the 
Danish Government reports, which are often quite full and 
interesting. 



NOTE ON THE INSECTS OF SUKKER- 
TOPPEN. 



BY L. J. W. JOYNEK. 




Owing to the loss (together with 
note-books) of my collection of in- 
sects, of which a very fair number 
had been captured, no attempt at 
any list, much less a classification, 
can be made. The field appeared to 
offer good opportunity to the en- 
tomologist during the prevalence of 
the brief heat of summer. Though 
coleopterous insects were expected 
in some abundance, a most careful 
search revealed only a few speci- 
mens. On the other hand, many 
species of the order Dipt era simply swarmed, and more than 
one species of the genus Culex ; but a single species of mos- 
quito, considering the swarms in which they occurred, would 
have been quite sufficient to arouse the keenest interest of an 
average or casual observer. Acting on the principle of " Live 
and let live/' I always make a point of never disturbing a 
mosquito at his meal ; but in Greenland I was absolutely brutal 
and unreasonable. Most of us can testify to the fact that, in 
spite of the cooler climate, and the consequent harder con- 
ditions of their life up there, these mosquitoes were by no 
means slothful. Some of the flies, too (particularly when one 
was busy fishing), left one's face smeared with so many verti- 
cal lines of clotted blood that it had to be scraped before recog- 



NOTE ON THE INSECTS OF SUKKERTOIT'EN. 195 

nition could take place. I made several fine collections of this 
species, but do not regret their loss. Among the Lepidojrtera 
were observed about a dozen species of Heterocera (many of 
them day-flying), and of the Rhopalocera (butterflies) two 
species appeared to be tolerably common — one a colias 
and the other of the genus Argynnis. The order Hymenop- 
tera was represented by a good number of bees, humble-bees, 
and ants, and many species of ground spiders were phe- 
nomenally plentiful. Pulex gigas, they say, occurs in Green- 
land, and nowhere else, but I kept away from the Huskies. 



THE FINDING OF THE RIGEL. 



BY RUSSELL W. PORTER. 




At the time the boat jour- 
ney up the coast in search of as- 
sistance was decided upon matters 
relating to the party's welfare were 
in a very bad way. As far as we 
could make out, from what we 
already knew and from what we 
learned from the governor at 
Sukkertoppen, our chances for 
returning to Europe or the United 
States that summer were very 
slight. No more Copenhagen 
—J trading vessels would put in at 
Sukkertoppen, and Captain Farrell, of the Miranda, said 
she was not safe to return in unaccompanied by another ves- 
sel. So our only chance was to intercept and bring to our 
relief one or more of the American fishing schooners which 
were usually to be found about this time somewhere off Hol- 
steinborg, near the Circle. Holsteinborg was one hundred 
and forty miles up the coast, and with a fair wind could be 
reached in a few days. 

So the open-boat journey was decided on. Dr. Cook un- 
folded his plans to us in his cabin. In the party were Lad d, 
Thompson, Rogers, Dunning, and myself. He frankly told 
us what we might expect — hard work at the oars, bad weather, 
camping on the rocks, etc., but we determined to go, some 
of us being glad to get the chance. 



THE FI^DIXG OF THE KEGEL. 197 

The governor was kind enough to give ns the use of his 
twenty-one-foot whale-boat and a large tent. To these were 
added provisions and hags and a crew of six Eskimos, one of 
whom was a full-fledged "kayaker." We started at five 
o'clock on the evening of August 10, leaving the crippled 
ship amid the cheers and good wishes of our comrades. We 
were soon in our oilskins, and on rounding the point at the 
mouth of the harbor we turned north. The two spritsails 
were set, and we were fairly off on our hazardous journey. 

We were cramped for room ; provisions, sleeping bags, 
tents, and eleven men brought the gunwale uncomfortably 
near the water's edge, especially when we got the full force 
of the wind while crossing the mouths of the fiords, and the 
tops of the waves came into the boat. The scene opening 
up to us was grand and awe-inspiring, similar to what was 
seen by the rest of the party in their trips about Sukkertop- 
peu. Kealizing, as we did, the seriousness of our mission, 
it made a deep impression on us. As night, or rather twi- 
light, dropped down about us, and the mountains far up the 
fiords were reflecting the last red rays of the almost mid- 
night sun, the bold rocks and headlands we were passing 
stood out in all their savage beauty. The sharp guttural 
"uk," "puk," "tuk," terminations to the Eskimos' warnings, 
as they saw the squalls coming, were weird and unnatural. 

This ever-varying scene of rugged mountains and islands, 
of the inland snow and the majestic fiords, was present dur- 
ing the entire trip. We saw it in all the lights and moods 
that nature alone could give, from the clear, sharp days when 
the fog-bank rolled out to sea and the clouds lifted from the 
mountains, showing us the shimmering ice-cap far inland on 
the horizon, to the days of wind and rain, when, storm-bound 
on some unknown island, we watched the black cliffs frown- 
ing down at us through the mist and rain. 

Our run the first day was forty miles in eight hours, ar- 



198 THE LAST CRUISE OE THE MIRANDA. 

riving at half-past one at Kangarmuit (Old Sukkertoppen), 
where we were greeted with a most unearthly chorus of howls 
floating out on the morning air. That night we slept in the 
attic of the church, and glad we were to do so, for it saved us 
pitching the tent. The next day, being rainy and "plenty 
[too much] wind" outside, we spent with Chief Trader 
Eosin, drinking coffee with him and trading with the natives. 

We started on Sunday morning, with the entire populace 
at the shore to see us off. A stiff, fair wind favored us, and 
by eleven o'clock that night we had another forty miles to 
our credit. About noon of that day we passed "Upper 
Strun " fiord, the largest in western Greenland. It runs 
inland over a hundred miles. 

Camp Eaven, named from the fact that two ravens croaked 
over our tent all night, was broken early Monday morning ; 
but such a wind was blowing that before we had made a mile 
northing Dr. Cook gave directions to put back to shelter. 
And high time it was, for as we were pitching the tent the 
storm broke, and for two days and nights it continued with 
such fury that it was seldom we ventured out. I never knew 
what a "blow" was till the wind came down off those moun- 
tains and tried to carry away our tent. Several times we 
woke and gripped the canvas, fearing it would be torn from 
the guys, and several times the sides were strengthened by 
additional rocks. It was the same storm that doubtless 
visited the hunting parties at about that time, although from 
what I learned they did not get as much wind. 

On Thursday morning, soon after midnight, there were 
signs of clearing, and Dunning, on interviewing Jacob, our 
one-eyed skipper, finally got him to say he would proceed. 
We were all anxious to be off ; we knew the people on the 
steamer were worrying about us, and we were afraid of missing 
the schooners. 

Itirdlek, a small, poverty-stricken place of perhaps fifty 



THE FINDING OF THE KIGEL. 199 

souls, was reached at eleven o'clock. The Arctic Circle had 
been crossed that morning, and for the first time we were 
really within the Arctic Zone. The news we heard was bad — 
no schooners, and no knowledge of them. That was the gist 
of our conversation with Trader Jacob Dahl. 

The wind had gone down, and the mosquitoes were mak- 
ing life miserable, when we packed up our effects, after a hasty 
meal, and prepared for a thirty-mile row. We buckled down 
to our task in earnest, each one in turn taking a hand at the 
oars. 

At six o'clock that night Amerdlok fiord was crossed, 
and at eight the town of Holsteinborg, our destination, was 
sighted. We were greeted with open arms by Governor 
Miiller, who informed us that some five schooners were off the 
coast only a few miles, one having gone out only that 
morning. 

The effect upon us of this news, the feeling of joy and 
relief, can be better imagined than described, and when we 
were ushered into a room where actually there was a bed with 
eider-down pillows, mattresses, and quilts we for the mo- 
ment forgot that we were shipwrecked people, and lived 
entirely in the present. 

There was but one hitch in this streak of good luck : we 
couldn't all sleep in that bed ; so we drew lots, and Ladd, 
Thompson, and I banked out on the floor. Dr. Cook and 
Rogers slept on the feathers. Xext night, however, I very 
conveniently became ill, which obviously gave me the right to 
the bed, so I experienced the pleasant change from rocks and 
boards to eider-down and linen. 

When I awoke next morning I heard these words uttered 
by Dr. Cook: "Thompson, I want you, Rogers, and Porter 
to take a telescope and climb that mountain across the harbor 
to look for a schooner ; if you see a sail, note its bearing and 
return at once." We had no sooner crossed the harbor and 



200 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

begun the ascent than Kogers saw a vessel putting in south of 
us — at Nepisat, we thought — and he started back immediately 
to inform the Doctor, while Thompson and I went on up the 
mountain. 

I shall never forget that ascent. First we got into the 
fog, later into rain, and finally, when about two-thirds of the 
way up, we found ourselves in a blinding snow-storm. We 
kept on, and finally reached the summit, some 2,000 feet above 
the sea-level, glorying in the fact that it was August and that 
we were knee-deep in snow. 

I took several snap shots on this little trip, one in par- 
ticular of a beautiful waterfall near the base of the mountain, 
which I regret exceedingly was lost. 

I saw my first and only game in Greenland as we were ap- 
proaching the foot of the mountain in the boat. It was a 
blue fox, and a small one at that. The little fellow watched 
us from the shore until we had almost landed, when, with a 
bark very much like that of a dog, he scampered off over the 
rocks. 

As soon as Dr. Cook heard of the sail we had seen ne 
despatched a kayaker with instructions to intercept the vessel 
and deliver despatches stating our distress and asking for as- 
sistance. For the rest of the day we wandered about the town, 
taking pictures, and watching the govern or exercise his dogs at- 
tached to a sledge, which they drew over the lawn in the yard 
in fine style. At meal times Mr. Muller spread a bountiful 
repast, at which he insisted we should all be present, and 
which it is unnecessary to say we all enjoyed immensely after 
the scanty meals we had coming up the coast. 

I cannot speak too highly of this gentleman's courtesy and 
unbounded hospitality to us while we were under his roof. 
There was nothing too good for us, and when the time for 
parting came, sincere regret was expressed by the entire 
family. They lived in the same comfortable, almost luxurious. 



THE FUSTDIXG OF THE KIGEL. 201 

style as Governor Bistrup, at Sukkertoppen, with all modern 
conveniences, from a beautiful upright piano down to a snap- 
shot camera. 

To return to the mission nearest our hearts. The climax 
came the second evening, August 1G, while we were in the 
governor's study. There was a commotion at the wharf, and 
some urchin ran in sputtering something about strangers at the 
dock, and we all rushed to the gate at the brow of the hill to 
see what the matter was. Coming up the narrow path was a 
sight which moved me, and I believe the rest of our little band, 
more than any other event of the trip, not even excepting the 
accident. 

Swinging from side to side, and clad in their oilskins and 
sou'westers, were five Gloucester fishermen. They had heard 
of our mishap, and had come post-haste to Holsteinborg in a 
dory. The spokesman, a man whose name is now a house- 
hold word in many homes, was taken into the governor's house 
and our case was laid before him, and very soon we saw how 
matters stood. The noble fellow was standing between sym- 
pathy and duty. In justice to his crew and the owners of his 
vessel, he could not abandon his cruise for the sake of a party 
of unfortunate strangers. Yet such was his love for human- 
ity, seeing that we were staring the prospects of a winter 
in Greenland in the face, he felt what he would want another 
man to do if he were in our place. He left us with these 
words : " I must see my crew. If you see my vessel in the 
offing to-morrow morning flying her flag you will understand 
that I have decided to take you to your friends at Sukker- 
toppen." 

The morning came, and with it the schooner. All that 
which follows is an old story ; that is, after we reached 
our party on August 20. We rowed to the schooner, our 
effects were put aboard, and our crew of faithful, dirty Hus- 
kies left us with the whale-boat to make their way to Sukker- 



202 THE LAST CEUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

toppen by themselves. The good schooner Rigel weathered 
out a moderate gale off Kangarmuit and finally drew up along- 
side the Miranda, surrounded by the whole of the populace 
in their boats. 

Thus ended ten days of the most delightful experiences of 
my life. Nothing have I ever given up with a more lingering 
regret than the sight of " Greenland's icy mountains" fading 
away in the dim, purple distance. 



THE TRIP TO HOLSTEINBORG. 



BY MAYNARD LADI). 




Me. Porter has had the pleas- 
ant task of telling the story of the 
trip to Holsteinborg in search of a 
vessel to bring the passengers and 
crew of the Miranda back to home 
and friends. I do not wish to en- 
croach upon his ground, and, as I 
have not seen his narrative, I may 
prove a trespasser. If this be the 
case I offer my apologies to Mr. 
Porter and to whomever may chance 
to read these fragmentary reminis- 
cences. 
We six — Dr. Cook, Porter, Rogers, Thompson, Dunning, 
and I — enjoyed a novelty of incidents in that eventful trip of 
ten days which made it to us the most memorable experience 
of the expedition. My mind dwells with most interest on 
the first and last days of the journey. Up to the time we 
stepped down the gangway ladder into the boat and pulled 
out of the harbor of Sukkertoppen amid the cheers and eager 
God-speeds of our companions, events had turned from bad to 
worse, until the good-natured acquiescence of the passengers 
to their continual ill-luck was surely changing to a feeling 
of anxious apprehension. In retrospect, it seems as if the 
spell of misfortune which had followed us with such persistency 
became broken from the moment we lost sight of the Miran- 
da as we rounded the rocky promontory which enclosed the 
northern part of the harbor. 



204 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

A favoring breeze freshened our hopes as it speeded us in 
the direction of Kangarmuit. That evening's sail was rare 
sport. The wind grew stronger and stronger, driving us 
along at a pace that left our swift kayaker far astern, and we 
were finally obliged to lay to under the lee of an island to 
await his coming. When we had taken him and his canoe 
aboard we numbered eleven persons, who, with the tents, 
provisions, and sundry luggage, weighted our twenty-foot 
boat about to her limit. How well I remember that evening ! 
We six were snugly packed in the stern, our knees locked, 
and every inch of room occupied. In the bow were the four 
Huskie sailors, and behind us sat old Jacob Neilson, our half- 
breed pilot, blind in one eye, but, as we had many oppor- 
tunities to prove, still skilful in the art of sailing between 
dangerous shoals and ugly-looking reefs. 

Toward eleven o'clock it grew moderately dark, and heavy 
gusts of wind began to sweep over the water at frequent 
intervals, gradually increasing in strength. One of the sails 
had to be taken in, and often the second also, when a partic- 
ularly heavy blast made the little boat tip to one side until the 
water flowed over the gunwale. The Huskies, crouched low 
on the windward side, kept a close lookout for the squalls. 
Every minute or two came their warning shouts to Jacob, and 
a moment later the strain upon the masts bore witness to the 
keen sight of the natives. Our pilot's skill never failed him, 
however, and we soon acquired confidence in him and the 
staunch little boat. The shoals and reefs which surrounded 
us looked ominous in the dusky light, but only once did they 
seriously threaten us ; and then our rudder became unshipped 
and we were being driven rapidly toward the rocky shore. 
The oars were quickly put in place, and a little vigorous pull- 
ing prevented any accident. 

As we neared Kangarmuit we got under the lee of the 
islands. The sailing grew quiet and less exciting. The 



THE TEIP TO HOLSTEINBORG. 205 

Eskimos relaxed their vigilance, and, crowding close to 
each other for warmth, sang weird native songs. Cold and 
fatigued from our cramped position, we dozed as best we 
could. Morning was dawning as we entered the harbor of 
Kangarmuit, or Old Sukkertoppen, amid a grand chorus of 
howls from a colony of dogs, which gave to the slumbering 
village the first intimation of the presence of strangers. 

For several days the wind blew strongly from the south- 
west and the sea and sky were threatening. If the condition 
of the elements was at times unfavorable to our plans, it had 
the redeeming feature of adding to the picturesqueness and 
impressiveness of the scenery along the coast. We were once 
encamped on a little island, named by us " Windy Cove," 
for thirty-six hours, during which the gale, which had been 
steadily gaining in violence since our first night, finally 
ended. Not until midnight of the fourth day was the water 
smooth enough for a boat like ours to venture out. So we 
made a midnight breakfast, broke up our camp, and at two 
o'clock in the morning embarked for a run of twenty-two 
hours to Holsteinborg. 

The air was cold and piercing after the storm. If we suf- 
fered some discomforts in consequence, we were richly com- 
pensated for it by the magnificence of the scenery. The 
heavy black clouds remained, though the wind had mod- 
erated, giving a wild and unnatural look to the rugged coast. 
North and south, as far as the eye could reach, lay a grand 
chain of mountain ranges. In distant spots one could see 
the great white masses of the inland ice, which cast its glare 
into the sky with intense brightness. Between them and the 
sea, still spotted with foamy whitecaps, rose a great barrier 
of mountains split into a hundred ragged peaks. Some pro- 
jected into the heavens for several thousand feet ; some 
seemed like ruined castles built on impregnable heights, and 
many ended at the very water's edge in steep precipices that 



206 THE LAST CKITISE OF THE MIKA^DA. 

extended almost perpendicularly from the base to the top. 
Between them, the overhanging glaciers dipped into the mas- 
sive fissures, and deep, beautiful fiords ran for miles back tow- 
ard the interior. The new-fallen snow completely covered 
the upper portion of the peaks, its brightness intensified by 
the dark blue of the mountains below the sharply marked 
snow-line. As the morning advanced, the sun began to 
pierce the heavy clouds, making a thousand different lights 
and shadows, and giving an effect the beauty and grandeur of 
which were truly inspiring. 

Many times we wished the rest of the party might have 
witnessed these scenes. We began to realize what might have 
been our enthusiasm for Greenland and Arctic voyages if 
fate had not so suddenly brought the expedition to an end. 
I feel that we were most fortunate to have had the oppor- 
tunity of viewing so much of the Greenland coast. We also 
had a chance to compare the natives of the different settle- 
ments. Kangarmuit did not differ much in character from 
Sukkertoppen, except that it was smaller and the Eskimos 
were, on the whole, less prosperous. In Itirdlek, however, one 
could not fail to notice the contrast. The natives were 
abjectly poor and dirty, and their houses, as a rule, were far 
worse than those of the most degraded in Sukkertoppen. 

In Holsteinborg all was different. An air of comparative 
respectability and prosperity impressed itself upon us at once. 
A suspicion of cleanliness, both of the houses and inhabitants, 
was very evident, and after our visits at Kangarmuit and 
Itirdlek we felt we had reached Greenland's metropolis. The 
neat and spacious quarters of Governor Miiller and his assis- 
tant, Herr Koch, and the government buildings for the seal- 
oil industry, naturally formed the bulk of the settlement. 
Perhaps our royal reception at the hands of Governor Miiller 
and his hospitable wife had much to do with our favorable 
impressions of the place. They certainly showed us every 



HE TRIP TO HOLSTEINBORG. 207 

kindness and courtesy. If it had not been for the active ser- 
vices of the Governor in our behalf, the result of our trip 
would probably have been very different. 

As the anniversary of the events related in this history of 
the Miranda's last voyage recurs we all undoubtedly find our 
thoughts reverting to the scenes through which we passed. 
I venture to say that in these contributions from the different 
members of the expedition there will be at least one point of 
agreement — we are all glad we went, and doubly glad to have 
happened upon so noble a rescuer as Captain Dixon, of the 
Rigel. 



CEBERGS. 



BY ARTHUB E. THOMPSON. 



From the far Northland ceaselessly 
they come, 
Like errant knights, a-sailing 

down the sea, 
That alien men may guess the 
majesty 
And splendor of the mighty Frost 
King's home. 



1 Firm and immutable they seem, 
j and fling 

The baffled surges back in high 
disdain, 

As if such puny onsets must be vain 
'Gainst the proud structures of the Arctic King. 




"Well might old minstrels sing the monarch's fame 
Within those steel-blue caverns of the ice, 
Where crystal arches, carved in fretwork nice, 

His lavish wealth and royal power proclaim. 



But as I listen, 'tis no song I hear ; 
No hoary minstrel from his cavern sings, 
Nor with enfeebled fingers tunes the strings : 

A sound more stern, more awful, meets my ear. 



ICEBERGS. 209 

Hark ! from the depths of yonder glistening mass 
Come thunderings, as if the mighty Thor 
Had made his fortress there, and offered war 

To Ocean's monsters from a throne of glass. 

Yet sea-birds shy, as 'twere no fearsome place, 
Alight and rest, and dolphins round it play 
Within the circle of its surf and spray : • 

Men only turn in terror from its face. 

So trend the monsters southward haughtily, 
Admired, and feared, and wondrous for a time, 
Till 'neath the soft, insidious southern clime 

They fall — the prey of Sun and fawning Sea. 



A GREENLAND SUNDAY. 



BY CHARLES BLAKE CARPENTER. 




It was a curious but reverently 
conducted service that we attended 
at St. James' Church, Sukkertop- 
pen, on August 12. It was a cold, 
i gray misty morning ; such a one as 
in the land of Christian civilization 
would have soothingly induced the 
indifferent church-goer to remain 
quietly at home, conscientiously 
absorbed in the quantity of his 
Sunday journal. But the Eskimos 
— let this virtue be duly regarded — 
' are not fair-weather Christians, and 
the congregation was large, in consequence. The ladies have 
no gowns to ruin, no feathers to uncurl, no frizzes to " come 
out ; " nor do silk hats or creased trousers concern the gentle- 
men. In a pouring rain, therefore, with no umbrellas, all 
maintain a cheerful countenance and a peace of mind not 
even remotely disturbed by a shadow of " things correct " as 
to cut or shape — and go to church. In singular contrast is 
this spirit to the immortal utterance of one of New England's 
daughters who, in a contemplative mood, remarks : " There 
is a repose in the consciousness of being perfectly well 
dressed that even religion cannot bestow." The revelation of 
this truth has yet to dawn upon the Eskimo mind. When it 
does, together with other truths of a highly enlightened 
nature, the repose in primitive simplicity on the part of the 



A GREEXLAX]) SUNDAY. 211 

Greenlanders — that happy independence of a contented people 
— will be forfeited. 

It was the novelty of the situation that induced the 
American contingent of that singularly strange congregation 
to be present at a service than which nothing but the spirit 
in which it was held could be appreciated. 

At ten o'clock we were all at the church — a whitewashed 
stone building with a wooden front, the wood having been 
brought j!rom Denmark — whose spire, surmounted by a cross, 
manifests in a strong and beautiful way how in every tribe 
and kindred the symbol of Christianity is being uplifted. It 
was not long ago that these people were pagans, and farther 
north and on the eastern coast many still hold to the crude 
belief of their forefathers. In the spring of 1894 the first 
missionary station on the eastern shores was established. 
The work and zeal of missions are spreading, though marked 
results are hard to determine. The first bell had called to- 
gether a motley number, who stood idly about the doors of 
the church, smiling good-naturedly, and maintaining a re- 
spectful silence. At the ringing of the second bell more 
church- comers hurried from their little igloos. No one 
entered until Mr. Petersen first went in. Mr. Petersen, a 
half-breed, studied at Copenhagen for two years, and is the 
licensed catechist of the parish, as well as the village school- 
master. His father, an old man with a kind face, assists 
him. The service is Lutheran. Once each year a regular 
priest visits the parish to confirm, administer the sacraments, 
and perform the marriage rites. Marriage is the outcome of 
an exceedingly brief courtship, during which there is no time 
allowed for " HuylerV or flowers to be sentimentally be- 
stowed ; in fact, there is nothing pathetically civilized about 
an Eskimo engagement, but, through Christian influence, let 
it be said, marriage is honorably regarded. 

At the service on this morning in question Mr. Petersen, 



212 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

Sr., officiated, and his son presided at the organ. The front 
pews had been reserved for us, and in our rear this strange con- 
gregation — the men on one side and the women on the other — 
arranged themselves, the children sitting in front of them, 
upon whom the watchful eye could rest and interrupt any 
enthusiastic diversions from the service itself. A period of 
the most violent coughing ensued, consumption being com- 
mon among them — a result of careless living and the mixture 
of the Danish and Eskimo races. 

The interior of the church was neatly painted in white and 
light-blue, the altar covered with a cloth of red, with fleur de 
Us embroidered in gold. On the altar were two eucharistic 
lights and a crucifix. Completing the chancers furnishings 
were the lectern and old-fashioned pulpit, and a small reed 
organ. A stove in which peat is burned, near the centre of 
the nave, afforded the necessary heat. The service was begun 
in a low, tearful voice, and maintained throughout in the same 
monotone. While nothing, of course, could be understood by 
us, the service was nevertheless impressive. A few opening 
sentences . were first read, then the Lord's Prayer ; a chant 
followed, sung in perfect harmony, but very slowly. The 
Eskimos have good voices and an excellent sense of harmony. 
It took fifteen minutes to sing this chant. A chapter was 
then read, after which, for the first time, the congregation 
rose to repeat some short versicle. A very unimpassioned 
sermon of twenty-three minutes was read, during which one 
man gave way to occasional snores. At the close of the ser- 
mon they arose for the ascription. A hymn followed, then a 
prayer and the grace, and the service was ended. At six 
o'clock that evening we returned for our own service. To 
my surprise, there were about two hundred Eskimos waiting 
around the church. It was a most curious congregation, and 
impressed me singularly. In the front pews sat some of our 
university professors, several physicians, lawyers, men of 



A GKEEXLAXD SUNDAY. 213 

business, college students, the Danish Governor, his wife and 
family, the Assistant Governor and bis wife, about thirty of 
the Miranda's crew, and in the rear, closely seated together, 
were the Huskies, tbe peculiar fashion of wearing the hair, 
witb their various-colored ribbons, producing a strange effect. 
A sermon of Dr. Liddon's was read. An Eskimo organist 
played the hymns which I had arranged, through Mrs. Bis- 
trup, the governor's wife, as interpreter, should be played in 
the order as marked when I shook my head. We sang "Blest 
Be the Tie That Binds/' "Abide with Me," "Nearer, My 
God, to Thee," and " Coronation." 

" Let every kindred, every tribe, 
On this terrestrial ball, 
To Him all majesty ascribe, 
And crown Him Lord of all," 

seemed fittingly appropriate. ' ' From Greenland's Icy Moun- 
tains " would have been gladly sung, but our chances of remain- 
ing there for one whole year seemed unpleasantly certain. 

The church was provided with no alms-basin, and wben 
the offertory sentence was announced Commodore Gardner 
passed Mr. Cleveland's hat among our own members of 
the congregation, and the offering was afterwards presented to 
the governor, to be used for the benefit of the church. Fortu- 
nately, the organist played the hymns in the order of their 
announcement, and the service proceeded reverently. Though 
it is a sad reflection, it cannot be denied that Professor Dyche 
was prominently asleep — a lethargic effect, in all probability, 
of the Greenland mountain air. 

I could not but be impressed, as we read that evening in 
the Psalter for the twelfth day, with the force of the words : 
" Thou that art the hope of all the ends of the earth and of 
them that remain in the broad sea ; " and again, " They that 
dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth shall be afraid at 
Thy tokens." And then it seemed sad to think how utterly 



214 THE LAST CKUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

lost must be the meaning of those words that follow in the 
same beautiful Psalm : " Thou waterest her furrows, Thou 
sendest rain into the little valleys thereof, Thou makest it 
soft with the drops of rain and blessest the increase of it. 
Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness, and Thy clouds 
drop fatness. They shall drop upon the dwellings of the 
wilderness, and the little hills shall rejoice on every side. The 
folds shall be full of sheep, the valleys also shall stand so thick 
with corn that they shall laugh and sing." Eskimos have 
no idea of furrows* They have never seen sheep, nor sheep- 
folds, nor corn. The beauty is lost to them, and they are 
not aware of the existence of so many of our most familiar 
things. Fortunately, in no way is this knowledge neces- 
sary for their practical welfare or happiness. The hard, 
cold facts of Arctic theology must be referred to some native 
doctor of divinity for consistent explanation. Emerging in 
comparatively recent times from the strange superstitions of 
which their folk-lore tells us, their appreciation of some of 
the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion has yet to 
develop. Christian influence, however, has brought about 
many changes, and they are wisely instructed in religion in 
a natural native way, without the unnecessary accompaniments 
of a foreign civilization being thrust upon them — their means 
of living not admitting of these advantages. Ear better for 
them to know and feel the real truth of religion according to 
their own standard of civilization, however crude that may 
seem — to be taught their duty in that state of life in which 
God has placed them — than to introduce a civilization which 
would breed a spirit of discontent and lead to the extermina- 
tion of the race. 

After church we were delightfully entertained by the gov- 
ernor and his family, and so our Sunday amid Greenland's icy 
mountains came to an end, leaving impressions which will 
long be pleasantly remembered. 



OUR ADVENTURES AT SUKKERTOPPEN 



BY CARLYLE GARRISOX. 



<m 



At Governor Bistrtjp's house 
we were heartily welcomed. On 
August 9 we started for Disco. A 
storm seemed impending, and the 
wind was blowing half a gale. Cap- 
tain Farrell's charts were old, so he 
had to rely on the pilot who took us 
out. 

The pilot left us about 8 A. m., 
after giving directions to Captain 
Parrell. What these were, opinions 
differ. However, when we had 
steamed about seven miles on our 
course, and were still near the rocky 
shores, our ship met with the accident that eventually caused 
us to abandon her. 

About half-past eight o'clock, while we were all at break- 
fast, a slight grating was heard, then it ceased for a moment ; 
but as the Miranda sank into the trough of the sea she 
crashed down upon a hidden reef, throwing men from their 
feet and piling the dishes indiscriminately at one end of the 
dining-room — and the third time that she came down on the 
reef we all felt instinctively that the ship would sink, so a 
scramble for the deck occurred, thus rendering the com- 
panionway a scene of the wildest excitement. 

But when we arrived on deck the confusion was over, and 
those who were sparsely attired even ventured to go below 




216 THE LAST CKTJISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

and finish their toilet. To show how the mind acts under 
intense excitement, one man rushed to his stateroom and 
gravely told his companion to save all the tobacco that he 
had. The latter carefully poured from a tin box about three 
pipe-loads of the sacred stuff and tied it up in a paper bag ; 
then remembering the ship's condition, he rushed on deck. 

The whistle was blown and the cannon fired so as to at- 
tract the attention of those on shore. 

After waiting some time we saw two small specks appear 
on the crest of a wave, but in another instant they had disap- 
peared. Now the specks would appear and disappear at short 
intervals, and again we would lose sight of them for some time. 
Finally they reached the side of the Miranda, and proved to 
be kayaks. Climbing up the ladder, the first Eskimo, rush- 
ing to the bridge where the captain stood, pointed over the 
starboard bow, and exclaimed, in an excited tone, "No 
goot ! " then pointing to his mouth, he wavered as though he 
were about to fall. The battle with the waves had completely 
exhausted him. Water was soon brought to him, and had the 
desired effect. 

About an hour later we were moored in the harbor of Suk- 
kertoppen. The engineer made an examination, and found 
that the water-ballast tank was filled with water and could 
not be cleared. He also found two small holes, which were 
immediately plugged. In such a condition it was impossible 
to attempt to cross Davis Straits, so we must hunt for aid. 

We learned that several American fishing schooners were 
anchored at Holsteinborg, about one hundred and forty miles 
north of Sukkertoppen. The outlook was not very pleasant, 
for if we did not get another ship we should have to winter in 
Greenland, which meant probable death to some of us. 

Dr. Cook got up a party to go to Holsteinborg. He pro- 
cured a boat from Governor Bistrup. It was twenty-four feet 
long, carrying two sails, with five Eskimos to manage it. Two 



OUR ADVENTURES AT SUKKERTOPPEX. 217 

other parties went out for pleasure : one under Professor 
Wright, of Oberlin College, to visit the glaciers, and the 
other under Henry Collins Walsh, the historian of the party, 
to kill reindeer. 

During the two weeks that we remained in Greenland 
we had many opportunities of seeing the characteristics of the 
Eskimos. At a dance given in the governor's yard a young 
man from the Miranda failed to find a pa'rtner, but soon an 
Eskimo, seeing him looking on, brought his wife to dance 
with him. After the dance the Eskimo came np to him 
and said, "Tin crowner," meaning that he wanted a crown 
for letting his wife dance, but I am afraid that he failed to 
collect the money. 



THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



BY EUDOLF KERSTIJSTG, 

OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHER. 




Seventeen cameras on board 
the Miranda, and seventeen minds 
differing in their objects and views. 
Had the steamer been able to go 
over the intended route and given 
the travellers the time proposed, 
never would a more complete pic- 
torial record of Arctic travel, sport, 
and scientific aspects have been 
made. As it was, the scope of sub- 
jects in the illustrations is much 
more varied than any one, two, or 
three men, amateur or professional, 
could have procured. 
Something over a thousand plates, mostly developed, were 
lost when the steamer was abandoned. The writer lost over 
six hundred eight by ten negatives. 

The illustrations in this book are products of the cameras of 
members of the expedition, with the exception of five. These 
were reproduced from originals taken by a native Eskimo 
photographer at Godthaab, who spent two years in Denmark, 
and is quite proficient in the art ; and two of the illustrations 
have been reproduced from sketches. A few remarks con- 
cerning the photographers and their work will add to the 
interest of the illustrations. 

Professor William H. Brewer, of Yale, photographed with 
excellent success, paying much attention to lighting his sub- 






W. H. BREWER G. FRED'K WRIGHT F. B. WRIGHT JAMES D. DEWELL 





C. B. CARPENTER RUD. KERSTING 






R. O. STEBB1NS R. W. PORTER 



A. P. ROGERS J. R. FORDYCE 




G. W. GARDNER JULES F. VALLE L. L. DYCHE A. R. THOMPSON A. B. BROWN 



220 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

jects, tlie geological formations of rocks, dikes, traps, and 
eruptive basalt. 

Professor Gr. Fred. Wright, of Oberlin, and his son Fred, 
an able assistant, were especially interested in glacial forma- 
tions, photographing glacier fronts, tops, moraines, etc. 
Their views are among the best, as far as execution and selec- 
tion of subjects are concerned. Unfortunately, many of their 
finest views were lost. 

James D. Dewell, using a camera for the first time, 
astonished every one with the fine results of his work. He was 
interested particularly in the subject of cemeteries, and to this 
we are indebted for the fine views of Sukkertoppen Cemetery 
and its beautiful scenic surroundings. Charles B. Carpenter, 
a theological student, also handling a camera for the first 
time, had the good fortune to save all of his photographs 
— about one hundred and seventy in number. The majority 
of illustrations in this book are from his work. Thanks to his 
turn of mind, we have, among others, pictures of the church, 
the Petersen family, and the governors and their families. 

Elias P. Lyon, professor of biology, naturally contributed 
scenes and views particularly appropriate to his studies. 

Roswell 0. Stebbins, D.D.S., had the misfortune to lose 
about three hundred negatives, the majority relating to his 
study of the formation of Eskimo teeth and jaws. Thanks 
to his magazine camera, we have a dozen views of the expedi- 
tion up Isortok fiord, of which he was a member. Photo- 
graphs by him, taken on the return trip after reaching Labra- 
dor, are unquestionably the best extant. 

Russell W. Porter also lost all his Greenland views, but 
contributes a few good illustrations from life on board the 
Rigel. A. P. Rogers saved two plates, which are the only 
pictures we have of First Mate Manuel and Ice-pilot Dumphy. 
John R. Fordyce also saved his entire collection, numbering 
about two hundred. 



THE ILLUSTRATIONS. 221 

All the above-mentioned gentlemen saved more or less 
of their work, but the following lost their negatives and cam- 
eras : Dr. Jules F. Valle, for twenty years a noted amateur, 
had undoubtedly the finest collection of native character- 
studies ever collected. Professor L. L. Dyche, the naturalist, 
Commodore Gr. W. Gardner, A. R. Thompson, and A. B. 
Brown trusted too much to the staunchness of the Miranda, 
and have nothing for their labor. 

Never did a set of men work more harmoniously, ear- 
nestly, and enthusiastically than did my friends, the amateur 
photographers of the Cook Arctic Expedition of 1894. 



A LETTER FROM HON. GEO. W. GARDNER. 




Dear Old Shipmate : — From 
the moil and turmoil of a business 
life, I rest to think over the haps 
and mishaps occurring to that royal 
good company who trusted them- 
selves to an ill-fitted and ill-fated 
iron steamship which sailed her 
final cruise, ending disastrously and 
yet so fortunately for us, though 
she now lies in the depths of the 
great northern sea. Shall we ever 
forget her name — the Miranda — or 
the ceaseless, untiring efforts for a 
successful voyage on the part of her good commander, or the 
noble - hearted captain who, with his whole-souled crew, 
rescued us by giving up an opportunity for financial success, 
in deviating from the object of his trip, generously providing 
us, in his good ship the Rigel, a safe passage to an accessible 
port, that we might continue on in the light of this life and 
its enjoyments with those most dear to us ? So long as this 
life lasts, we certainly shall not. 

What a transition, from the horrors of a shipwrecked con- 
dition — the insatiable longing for something palatable when 
afar off on Greenland's icy shore, patiently, hopefully wait- 
ing for succor — to the courteous hospitality of good Governor 
Bistrup, who never before spoke an English word till, with 
our teaching, he uttered that well-known sentence, " Many 
happy days," and to Mrs. Governor Bistrup, his charming 
wife, who in a most kindly manner greeted us so warmly 



A LETTER FROM HON. GEO. W. GARDNER. 223 

that the chill of the Arctic air was dissipated, and we moved 
in the thirty-third degree of Danish Greenland social enjoy- 
ment. What a change from the time when we were studying 
latitude and longitude, dodging the treacherous ice-fields that 
persistently surrounded us, peering in dense fogs that ever 
followed us, and fearing the almost certainty of dangerous 
reefs beneath us. You haven't forgotten, dear old shipmate — 
for our companionship 'midst all the discomforts of a dan- 
gerous cruise made us dear, each to the other — you cannot 
have forgotten the delicious enjoyment of that, to us, odd hut 
elegant dinner given us by our friends, Governor and Mrs. 
Bistrup, in their dove-nest, the only civilized — though small 
in compass — residence in that community of happy, peaceable, 
dirty Eskimos, who informed us in the good Huskie language 
that we all learned to know that Sukkertoppen was the name 
of the settlement where, with them, seal meat as fat as the 
Huskies who ate it raw was the staple diet. But we were 
not obliged eat it, for our governor's family were endowed 
with the greatest of social virtues, a generous hospitality, the 
more appreciated because the less anticipated. 

How we wondered whence came those dishes, served so 
graciously and with such congeniality, without ostentatious 
display, and how good they tasted to the starving explorers ! 
Deer sausage, prepared like Hamburg steaks, a fish dish 
tasting not unlike and resembling head-cheese, green peas, 
fruit, jam, radishes — real fresh radishes — about the size of a 
hazel nut, grown during the only month of Greenland sunny 
weather in the governor's garden of actual soil — a garden 
about ten feet by four — a wonderful garden of this one vege- 
table, for be it known that Greenland's strands are but rock, 
snow, and ice. Excuse this digression, but I felt obliged 
to explain how it came that we had fresh radishes. To 
these were added black and white bread, Danish butter, 
pickles, schnapps, sherry, madeira, and beer. Then followed 



224 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

the dessert of wafers, Swiss cheese, bread, coffee with goat's 
milk, brandy, and cigars. 

No epicure could have been more agreeably surprised with 
a " feast fit for the gods " than was this Arctic shipwrecked 
party with the dainties so freely given by our generous hosts. 

And now, good friend, comes the query : what benefit 
to man have these Arctic explorations wrought ? A knowl- 
edge of the natives of the wild northern wastes, whose origin 
is unknown, their habits and mode of living, of the formation 
of glaciers and their movements, the presence of whales, cod, 
halibut, and of innumerable marine birds and polar bears, 
and a cryolite formation, is about the sum and substance ; yet 
so long as the faith of nations, of historical and scientific as- 
sociations, and of purse-plethoric individuals is not exhausted, 
the ambitious will continue attempts that are always fraught 
with privations, horrible suffering, and death to fathom the 
mysterious, if not mythical, elusive North Pole ; to render 
possible the determination of the lines of variation in the 
magnetic needle, for which mariners would be eternally 
grateful, and to discover a northwest passage that would 
never be frequented. Is it worth the while ? Old shipmate, 
let you and me give all the chance and glory for future, 
probably futile, attempts to those who think they like heroic 
martyrdom. 

George W. Gardner. 

To H. C. Walsh. 



A LETTER FROM PROF. B. C JILLSON. 




My Dear Mr. Walsh : — You 
ask me to write something for your 
Arctic book concerning that part 
of our trip which most interested 
me. Now, my dear fellow, should 
I comply with your request, you 
would receive a volume as big as 
Webster's Dictionary, for every 
moment of the two months and a 
half was full of intense interest — 
some of it too intense to be par- 
ticularly pleasant. 

The icebergs made an impression 
on me not easily effaced. How large they were, and how 
beautiful ! Huge cubical blocks of ice measuring hundreds 
of feet on a side, reflecting the light like a mirror, or spark- 
ling like ten thousand diamonds ; large ' ' hay stacks," as 
white as the driven snow, floating on a polished sea; grand 
old cathedrals, with their turrets and towers and pinnacles 
and steeples ; enormous fortifications with perpendicular sides, 
their tops crowned with battlements, with embrasures for 
cannon and long cracks like loop-holes for musketry. And 
what beautiful plays of colors were produced as the light was 
reflected from their sides and from the deep crevices, or from 
the caves and caverns studded with icicles, making the mass 
glow with green and blue, like a huge topaz, or emerald, or 
amethyst ! and these beautiful sights we witnessed day after 
day, never the same, but always varying in form, and color. 

Do you remember that night when we were lost off the 
coast of Labrador and rowed from H A. M. till 2 : 30 F. M. 



22G THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

before we readied the ship ? Oh, how cold it was ! and when 
we landed on that island how I shivered, and how the others 
— good fellows as they were — almost smothered me with 
blankets and overcoats ; and how my chattering teeth bit off 
the stem of a pipe before I had taken a single puff ; and how 
we ran and danced, and swung our arms to keep the blood in 
motion ! And that same night how the auroras streaked the 
sky, now here, now there, with their long lines of quivering 
light looking like spears in the trembling hands of giants ! 
And afterwards on the Rigel, what a magnificent aurora that 
was swinging over our heads, its great folds beaming with rose 
and purple light, trembling as though shaken by some 
mysterious power ! And another night on the Miranda, 
when a rainbow appeared longer and wider than any we 
had ever seen, with the most beautiful and varying tints, with 
streamers shooting upward and downward from the great 
arch, and with the trembling, wavy motion so characteristic 
of the " Merry Dancers of the North." 

I remember you were in the party that took two dories and 
rowed twenty-four miles up the Isortok fiord, in Greenland, to 
visit some glaciers. What a fine sight was that we witnessed 
on our return, as the sun sank behind that long line of moun- 
tains whose top, notched like a saw, was clear cut against the 
sky. What exquisite colors : how they changed and varied in 
tint, and how long the twilight lasted, with its after-glow ! 
Mr. Stokes, the artist of Peary's first expedition, gave an ex- 
hibition here in Pittsburgh of his paintings of Arctic scenery, 
sunsets, auroras, etc. Nearly every one who saw these views 
thought them exaggerated — that such a coloring of nature 
was impossible. We know better, for we have seen it, not 
once or twice, but repeated and varied day after day and night 
after night ; to see such colors is worth all it costs, even if 
one loses all his worldly goods and is obliged to come home on 
a fishing smack. 



A LETTER FROM PROF. B. C. JILLSON". 227 

When the Miranda lay in the harbor of Sukkertoppen, a 
few hours after your party had started on a hunting trip, my- 
self and seven others, with five Eskimos, left to study the 
glaciers at the head of Ikaniiut fiord. For eleven days we 
lived in a small tent pitched on a narrow neck of land where 
two fiords meet. It was cold and stormy, and we were sub- 
jected to many inconveniences, but were amply repaid by the 
result of our studies and by living in the midst of such grand 
scenery, with such strange surroundings. We had for neigh- 
bors fifteen natives — nine women and six men — who lived in 
two igloos — miserable huts made of rough stone covered with 
sod. We were surrounded by solid rocks, which rose straight 
from the water a thousand or more feet, their tops covered 
with snow and ice which extended in long arms nearly to the 
water's edge. Several glaciers were in view, and our ears 
were frequently saluted by the boom ! boom ! like the dis- 
charge of heavy artillery, as icebergs broke from the parent 
mass and floated away. As we rowed over the fiords, or 
climbed the rough rocks, or wandered over the glaciers, not a 
tree was to be seen — not a shrub. Only a little grass between 
the rocks and a few flowers gave life to this " Land of Deso- 
lation." 

On Sunday we held service, to which our Eskimo friends 
were invited. The front of our tent was thrown back, and 
we sat at the entrance, while before us on our boat-seats were 
the natives clothed in their picturesque costumes made of 
fur. Of course, we did not omit that grand old missionary 
hymn, " From Greenland's Icy Mountains/' and we sang it, 
too, as we never sang it before, for were we not in the midst 
of those very mountains covered with ice and snow, and those 
wonderful fiords with their floating icebergs ? Is it any won- 
der that our thoughts frequently wandered to that far distant 
land where our friends were worshipping with such different 
surroundings ? 



228 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA 

Why, my dear fellow, everything interested me. Every 
day brought something new and strange. I believe I could 
write volumes about the magnificent scenery of Greenland 
and its wonderful system of glaciers and fiords ; about the 
funny little women with divided skirts, their heads adorned 
with red and blue and green ribbons and crowned with a 
Psyche knot, while perhaps a little bright-eyed baby cooed 
from the golf hood on the back of its mother ; about the kay- 
akers and their remarkable kayaks, how they would glide over 
the stormy sea where no white man dared venture, and bow 
they would roll over and over, now in the water and now out, 
wetting only their hands and face. And their harpoons ! 
how ingeniously they were made, as well as their weapons for 
capturing the seal, walrus, and other game — but why write 
more ? Every day was full of interest, from the rising of the 
sun to the going down thereof. Only yesterday a man said 
to me, " I never heard of any one who went in the vicinity of 
the North Pole who didn't want to go again, and you are an- 
other of those Arctic cranks. I don't understand it." Well, 
we do ; we've been there. 

I cannot close without a word of praise for good Captain 
Dixon and his crew, who came to our rescue when in dire dis- 
tress, and, with great pecuniary loss and inconvenience, took 
us to a place of safety. They are a good type of the New 
England fishermen — brave, venturesome, kind-hearted, and 
ever ready to help the unfortunate. May God bless each one 
of them with a long and happy life. 

B. C. Jillson. 



-*£*£. 




It was on 
the steamer Por- 
tia, the sister 
ship of the Miranda, that The Arctic 
Club was formed. The members of 
Dr. Cook's Arctic Expedition of 1894, homeward bound 
on that vessel, met in the smoking-room on the evening of 
September 8 and organized a club whose active members 
should consist of all the persons upon the passenger list 
of the Miranda on her last cruise into Arctic waters. The 
following officers were elected : Professor William H. Brewer, 
president ; Mr. Henry Collins Walsh, secretary ; and Mr. 
Kudolf Kersting, treasurer. Motions were passed to this 
effect : That an annual dinner be given by the club at a date 
falling between Christmas and New Year's Day ; and that 
any members unable to attend should forward letters to the 
secretary to be read at the dinner. 

The following gentlemen were elected honorary members 
of the club : Captain George W. Dixon, of Gloucester, Mass.; 
Captain William J. Farrell, of New York ; Governor Bistrup 
and Assistant-Governor Baumann, of Sukkertoppen, and 
Governor M tiller, of Holsteinborg, Greenland. The members 



230 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRANDA. 

of the expedition had already been bound together by the 
strong ties of common experiences, hardships, and dangers. 
It seemed well, therefore, to appoint a certain time when 
these experiences could be retold over the walnuts and wine. 
After iEtieas and his weary Trojans had been toiling against 
wind and wave he cheered their drooping spirits by remarking 
to them, " For sari et haec olim meminisse juvahit." And in 
truth there is nothing pleasanter in life in the way of social 
entertainment than tbe recalling of common hardships and 
dangers about a board where old comrades have assembled, and 
where libations and the incense of cigars are offered to the 
rescuing gods. 

The first annual dinner of the Arctic Club took place at the 
Hotel Martin, New York, on December 27, 1894, and was a 
unique and enjoyable affair. Speeches descriptive of Arctic 
life and adventure were made, and incidents and recollections 
of the trip were recalled by Professor William H. Brewer, 
Mr. James D. Dewell, Hon. George W. Gardner, Captain 
William J. Farrell, Dr. E. M. Cramer, Chief Officer George 
Manuel, Dr. E. 0. Stebbins, Professor L. J. W. Joyner, 
Dr. Frederick A. Cook, Mr. A. P. Eogers, Mr. Eudolf Ker- 
sting, Mr. Frederick P. Gay, Mr. William J. Littell, Mr. H. 
D. Cleveland, Mr. George M. Coates, Jr., and Mr. Carlyle 
Garrison. 

Letters of regret were read from various members of 
the club who were unable to attend the dinner ; among these 
was one from Captain George W. Dixon, who, unfortunately, 
was detained by business in Gloucester. Mr. Henry Collins 
Walsh gave a toast in his honor. In explanation of a certain 
portion of this toast, it must be said that the passengers 
of the Miranda had subscribed, before they parted at Sydney, 
the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars for the purchase of 
some fitting testimonial to Captain Dixon ; a large old-fash- 
ioned clock, richly ornamented, being finally decided upon by 



232 



THE LAST CRUISE OF THE MIRAXDA. 



And when he conies to meat and bread, 

I know 'tis but a fiction, 
And yet, methinks the clock hands spread 

To give our benediction. 

Till hearts are dead, till eyes are dim, 

"We shall forget him never ; 
And may our blessings bide with him 

Forever and forever. 

So I drink to one, he is not here, 

Yet I would guard his glory ; 
A knight without reproach or fear 

Should live in song and story. 

A heart as gentle as a lass, 

Yet bold as any eagle ; 
O comrades, rise ! I fill this glass 

To Dixon of the Rigel 1 




THE AKCTIC CLUB. 231 

the committee appointed for the purpose of purchasing the 
testimonial. This clock, with an appropriate inscription 
upon a silver plate, was accordingly forwarded to Captain 
Dixon early in October, 1894. 

THE TOAST. 

I drink to one, he is not here, 

Yet I would guard his glory ; 
A knight without reproach or fear 

Should live in song and story. 

No knight is he of high degree, 
Who fought for fame and beauty ; 

But just a sailor of the sea 
Who did his seaman's duty 

He thought of others, not of self, 

That night our good ships parted ; 
Nor cared for salvage nor for pelf, 

Because so human-hearted. 

For unto him his fellow-men 

Were the most precious burden ; 
And aught else was of lesser ken, 

Nor recked he of his guerdon. 

And is he now upon the sea, 

Or with his dear ones round him, 
Like carriers, may our greetings be, 

And rest not till they've found him. 

One memory like the golden sands 

Down Time's glass ever flowing, 
Our tall clock stands, and points its hands 

To his coming and his going. 









. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 648 919 6 



